


Post Mortem

by veenaistired



Category: Persona 3
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghost Hunters, F/M, Slow Burn, hamuko and minato are twins, they are part-time paranormal investigators and hijinks ensue
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:55:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 24,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27330808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/veenaistired/pseuds/veenaistired
Summary: Shinjiro is a perfectly normal adult with a perfectly normal, albeit low-paying job at a convenience store. Except his friends and him investigate hauntings as a side-gig.
Relationships: Aragaki Shinjiro/Arisato Hamuko, Aragaki Shinjiro/Arisato Minako
Comments: 12
Kudos: 29





	1. Twin Weirdness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been sitting on this little AU for a few months now, and I'm so happy to finally be able to share it! 
> 
> Yeah, I know that, technically, I have another Shinham fic ongoing, but it's so old and my writing has changed so much (it's the first fic I've ever written so it's kinda… meh) I'm struggling to continue it.
> 
> Either way, I hope you have fun reading! <3

Shinjiro couldn’t suppress a shiver as a gust of particularly icy wind hit his form, reminding him why exactly he wasn't a fan of winter. It was cold and wet and it felt like his fingers were about to come off every time he had a smoke. In truth, he'd rather be back home. Still, he kept walking at a brisk pace, towards his destination. He was late already, not by much, though he had no doubts Mitsuru would still chew him out over it. He shook his head and picked up the pace a little at that particular thought.

The morning sun was just rising over the Tatsumi Port City docks, though that did nothing to make them look more inviting. If anything, the light made it more obvious what a depressing place this was. Bland Warehouses neatly lined up in rows in a sad imitation of actual buildings. The only semblance of variety being the different colors, blue and red, with an occasional dull grey. The only way for someone like him, to navigate the almost maze-like place was to look at the big numbers and arrows painted onto the pavement. Sector D, Warehouse 5. That’s where he was headed. 

Shinjiro hadn’t come to the docks to work, or at least, not work in the conventional sense. No, he’d come here to hunt some demons. 

Well, actually the correct term wasn’t ‘Demon Hunter‘ but ‘Paranormal Investigator‘, but the latter sounded decidedly too mundane for what he was doing. The gist of it was this: some poor slob had trouble with a lingering spirit or old curse or vengeful demon and they called Shinjiro and his friends to figure it out. 

Mitsuru and Akihiko, his best friend and occasional punching bag since childhood, and him had been doing this for the better part of two years now, after finding out Akihiko’s own apartment was haunted and, after a lot of research into things that Shinjiro had dismissed as absolute nonsense until then, managed to get rid of it. The downstairs neighbor had caught wind of it and practically begged them to help with his own ghost problem and so, their little group was born. It’d taken them a hot minute to figure out how to safely, or at least relatively so, deal with all that messed up ghost stuff and even longer to find a trusted source of information for new cases. But after a lot of asking around some shady occultist shops and parlors, they found this weird little store in the back alley of the city mall. 

It was run by this shady old guy, Igor, who could’ve benefitted from a nose job, and his assistant. Though Shinjiro had to wonder how he could even afford to hire an employee, considering he never saw anyone else visit the shop. Either way, the guy was the real deal. He wouldn’t tell them how he got the information, but every so often they’d get a call from him or his assistant and, with that call, a new job. Igor never charged them for the information even though they always got paid for their work. When they’d asked him about it, at Mitsuru’s insistence, he’d replied „Knowing there is one less problem in this town is payment enough.“

Suited him just right. Working as a convenience store clerk paid the bills but Shinjiro wasn’t exactly rich. Not even close. In his books, any money he made from his side gig as Demon-Hunter-slash-Paranormal-Investigator was good money. Which was exactly why he on his way to some creepy abandoned warehouse at the crack of dawn instead of sleeping in on a Sunday. Whatever, if things went according to plan he’d be back home in three hours tops. 

Things did not go according to plan. Well, fuck him.

When he arrived at warehouse D5 there was a whole group of people already standing in front of the container. Those had better not be the clients. Their little group had a policy they enforced at every job they did, without fail: They worked alone. Nobody else allowed. 

Clients just tended to get in the way and if shit hit the fan, which it did too often for comfort, they couldn't deal with a curse gone wrong and protecting some other people at the same time. So when he saw all of those strangers, his mood turned from 'not great but still okay' to 'straight-up pissed'.

When he finally arrived in front of the warehouse, Shinjiro could’ve asked what was going on nicely. Could’ve. But it was too damn early in the morning, so he didn’t.

"What are _they_ doing here?" Akihiko instantly shot him a gaze that very clearly said 'Don’t start', but he didn’t care. 

"Well, it seems like Igor has made a mistake. He’s sent these people on the same job as us", Mitsuru answered in her business-like tone. Alright, this was even worse than the clients showing up. Igor was going to get a mouthful, that much was sure.

"You’re kidding." 

"She isn’t," one of the strangers chimed in. A woman around his age, with a mop of reddish-brown hair tied up in a ponytail. 

"Well, what now?" Akihiko offered before anyone else had the chance to speak. They’d obviously been through this already before he’d arrived.

"You leave and let us work, that’s what!" The voice belonged to another one of the strangers.

Shinjiro would’ve said something, but the guy was already being elbowed in the ribs by some other chick, so he saved himself the trouble.

"Can it, Junpei!" He didn’t. 

"But we were here first!" 

"Junpei if you don’t shut up right this second I swear-"

"Alright, enough! This isn’t getting us anywhere." It was ponytail-girl again. The other two immediately quit their bickering "How about a compromise?"

"What do you have in mind?" Mitsuru asked, without skipping a beat. She probably didn’t want to give the situation another chance to escalate.

"Easy, we do this together. Split the work, split the pay." 

"Not happening", Shinjiro immediately replied. In an instant, all eyes were on him. 

"And why’s that?" The woman crossed her arms in front of her, a challenge written all over her face.

In truth, he didn’t have a good answer. Other than 'I’m a shit team player and two other people are about as much as I can handle', though he had the feeling she wouldn’t be satisfied with just that. But if she wanted a challenge, that’s what she was going to get. He already had a retort on the tip of his tongue, but Mitsuru was quicker.

"Please excuse him. What he actually meant to say was 'yes, we’d love working together on this.'“ The way she looked at him made it clear that there wasn’t going to be a discussion on this. She was using her 'this is final' voice and, God knew, there was no challenging Mitsuru when she was like this. So, he just let out an indignant huff and nodded in affirmation.

He’d work with the other team, but that did not mean he had to be happy about it. Especially not at seeing ponytail-girl's smug smile.

One after another, they introduced themselves. The loudmouth guy was Junpei, but he’d already caught that and the one who’d been telling him to shut up was Yukari. And then there were the twins, Minato and Hamuko. There was something about the two of them he couldn’t quite put his finger on though. 

"So", Shinjiro began, "What are we working with?" His mood might stink but he still wanted to get through this case as fast as possible. Even Shinjiro wasn't enough of an ass to purposefully be difficult now.

"The usual. Strange noises, things being in different places even though nobody moved them, doors locking themselves."

"And they’re sure it’s something paranormal? Not just squatters or some drunk kids breaking in?" The number of times it’d been a false alarm… he didn’t even want to think about it.

"Yes, they are. Even sent someone to check out the locks," Hamuko answered. Well, at least that was something.

"They started renting the place three weeks ago, on January first, but before that, it was empty for almost a year. We had a chat with someone from the company who used to rent it before, they never had any problems," she continued.

"So whatever happened, happened during that one year," Shinjiro finished. 

"Bingo. Now we just need to figure out what it was."

Nothing good, that much was for sure. But in this line of work, that didn’t exactly narrow down the possibilities. It could be anything from a minor curse to the actual spirits of the goddamned dead haunting the place. Well, better get to work then. 

It wasn’t any warmer inside the warehouse, but at least it provided shelter from the wind. That was a step-up. At first glance, it looked completely ordinary. High walls made of corrugated iron and a roof of the same material being held up through multiple steel beams, spread throughout the space. The twins, however, didn’t seem to think so.

"Hamuko…" Minato whispered, barely audible. Shinjiro wouldn’t have caught it if he hadn’t been standing next to him.

"Yeah, I feel it too," she answered in a tone he couldn’t quite decipher. 

Even though he knew the paranormal existed, hell, he even had a small scar on the palm of his left hand from a job gone wrong to prove it, but he’d never been able to step into a space and just feel that something was off. Neither did Akihikko or Mitsuru, for that matter, so it was eerie to see someone, who he was at least 90 percent sure wasn’t faking, react like that. 

"Alright, let’s split up and look for anything suspicious." _Finally,_ something he could agree with. 

Everyone nodded and spread out in different directions, soon vanishing behind piles of crates and other stuff. The warehouse was quite large and Shinjiro found himself walking all the way to one of the far corners to start his investigation there. 

After about fifteen minutes, during which he found absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, his solitude came to an end when none other than Hamuko popped out behind one of the crates, walking straight towards him.

"What is it?" This time around he wasn’t even trying to sound rude, but it still kind of came out that way. For whatever reason though, she didn’t seem bothered at all. What surprised him more than that though, was what she said next.

"I can’t help feeling we got off on the wrong foot earlier. I’m sorry if I said anything wrong, my friends always tell me I can be a bit… intense." Good god, how was she the one apologizing?! If this was a guilt-trip it was incredibly well done. Or maybe she was just that good of a person. Either way, he’d better say something.

"Don’t worry. If anything, I was the one acting like an ass." She released a chuckle at that.

"So, we’re good?" She looked so genuine, he didn’t have to think twice about accepting the offer. Hey, even he could be cordial sometimes.

"We’re good." A smile, then a pause. "You found anything yet?"

"Yeah." The shift in her tone was both, obvious and sort of disconcerting. All of a sudden, she sounded so… serious. The change set off an unpleasant sense of foreboding, deep inside of him. "There’s something here. Or, well, someone. And they can’t get out." He didn’t bother asking her how she was able to know that for sure. For some reason, he trusted her assessment.

"So, what now?"

"I want to try talking to them." Yeah, sure. As if it were that easy. "They haven’t ever attacked any of the workers in here and they haven’t tried to drive them out either."

"Then what do you call all the creepy stuff that happened to them?"

"I think they’ve been trying to get someone's attention. Which is why I say we try and communicate."

"And how do we do that? Ghosts aren’t exactly talkative, you know." If it were that easy to cross the veil between planes he might as well be out of a job.

"We channel them."

"What?!"

"I said we-"

"Yeah, yeah, I got that! But _how?_ Because we damn well have tried before and it didn’t work!“

That was a gross understatement. Aki, Mitsuru, and him had tried about a million times, and they’d never gotten it to work properly. The closest they’d gotten was two shattered windows and the owner of the place losing their shit about the damage. Needles to say, they’d agreed to never try channeling again. Paying for property damage just wasn't worth it. And now this girl was talking about it as if it was the most mundane thing in the world. 

"Well, as fate, or coincidence, or whatever it is you believe in would have it, my brother and I are quite good at channeling." To underline her statement she crossed her arms in front of herself and flashed him a sly grin. For once though, someone else’s cockiness didn’t set him off. 

"Seriously?!" he blurted out, genuinely surprised. "How though?"

"It’s ‘cause of their twin weirdness," the loud guy, Junpei, cut in. He and Minato hat walked up on them while they were talking. Great. "I swear, those two have some freaky magic powers. Like _actual magic_." 

"Junpei!" Hamuko cut in, while her brother gave Junpei the silent treatment, hitting him with an ice-cold glare that almost rivaled Mitsuru’s. Almost. 

"They don’t like it when we say that though, so we’ve been calling it twin weirdness", he quickly added and the two seemed to relax at that. Weird. But if it helped with their investigation, who was he to complain.

"So you two are channelers?"

„Well, technically Minato is the channeler. I’m just the medium, though I get to be the one the ghosts talk through if that’s what you meant." Well, that was impressive. And kind of creepy if he was being honest, but in their line of business few things weren’t.

"I tap into the space between beyond and our plane that exists whenever a spirit is near and guide them to possess Ham so they can talk. She takes it from there."

"Guide the spirit? Aren’t they usually, you know, kind of shy?"

"Oh, spirits really like Minato. Told you, twin weirdness." Both of them rolled their eyes at that but didn’t say anything about it this time. Arguing with Junpei about it seemed, well, futile. 

At this point, the four of them twiddling their thumbs instead of checking out the warehouse attracted the other’s attention and they came walking over to their little group. Though he could’ve sworn that that Yukari girl, who seemed to be getting along surprisingly well with Mitsuru, had a knowing look in her eyes. He was proven right when she spoke, just a second later. 

"You sure about this guys? It _does_ take a toll on you." There was real concern in her voice and he immediately wondered if channeling was as easy as the twins and Junpei had made it out to be. Though, apparently, the others had made up their mind already.

"Look, whoever is 'haunting' this place, their presence is really strong. It would be a waste not to." 

"Excuse me, but what are you people talking about?" Akihiko was looking at them, completely lost. Not that anyone could blame him.

"Oh, they’re about to summon a spirit. No big deal," He answered his friend, pointing at the twins.

"Wait, _seriously?!_ "

"No, we’re about to channel a spirit. Two completely different things," Hamuko corrected. Not that Akihiko was any less surprised because of that.

"You can do that?" The twins nodded. "That‘s… impressive."

"We need to prepare first though. Junpei, hook me up."

While he had no idea what she meant, her friends obviously did. The group worked like a well-oiled machine. Junpei set the large bag he was carrying onto the warehouse floor and, within a few moments everyone had what they needed. While Minato and Yukari had fished something out of the bag that looked a lot like chalk, Junpei was stepping back towards Hamuko holding some sort of pen. She nodded and pushed back her bangs, exposing her forehead to Junpei, who started drawing something on it. When he was done he did the same on the backs of both her hands. It looked… really stupid.

"What are those?", he asked, unable to reign in his curiosity.

"Grounding symbols. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you this, letting yourself be possessed is weird. Bodies weren’t exactly made for one than more soul, so we use these", she held up her hands again, "to make sure I don’t accidentally get kicked out by our ghost friends."

"To be honest, it isn’t one hundred percent fool-proof, but better than nothing," Junpei added.

"Wait, so while you’re channeling you’re fighting another soul for your own body?" That didn’t sound healthy. All of a sudden he was glad all of their attempts at it had failed.

"I wouldn’t call it fighting. It’s more like… keeping a balance. Of course, it’s easier if the spirit complies."

"Has anyone ever tried to kick you out before?“

„No. Sure, they’ve been confused or scared but no one has ever tried to hurt me on purpose. So far I haven’t met a spirit who didn’t want to move on. As soon as they realize we’re here to help with that, they don’t resist.“ 

Just how often did those people casually talk to spirits? 

„Do you use a special kind of ink for those symbols?“, Akihiko, who'd been preoccupied with what the others were doing, asked, genuine curiosity in his voice. He could play tough all he liked, but Shinjiro knew that his best friend was secretly a nerd concerning all things magic rituals.

"Yup. The type that washes off with soap, "Hamuko answered. "That one time Junpei accidentally used a sharpie. You can imagine the result."

"I can’t believe you’re _still_ on my ass for that"

"Oh, cry me a river. You weren’t the one who looked like an idiot for three days straight."

While the two were finishing up their symbols, the others were drawing some kind of summoning circle on the floor in chalk. It wasn’t very large but consisted of a lot of elaborate signs, half of them he’d never seen before. He was sure Aki and Mitsuru knew though. 

Between the three of them, Shinjiro had the least to do with actual magic or lore. Mitsuru was their research and management expert and Akihiko was, for the most part, handling their spells. Shinjiro was… the muscle of the group. When you needed someone to smash down a wall with a sledgehammer to get access to the creepy secret basement or crawl down the vents to retrieve the cursed family heirloom, Shinjiro was your man. And when shit hit the fan he was there to make sure all of them made it out unharmed, at least for the most part. Still, he really ought to read up on magic symbols, at least a little. Who knew, they might come in handy someday.

"Alright, we’re good to go", Yukari said as she finished up the circle. 

Hamuko nodded, stepping towards it, but before she could get very far she was stopped by her brother putting a hand on her shoulder. There was a concerned expression in his eyes, a sentiment that carried over into his voice as he spoke.

"Ham, you don’t have to do this. We can still stop if you’re not feeling up to it." 

"I know." What happened next was hard to explain. The two just looked at each other, but it was so much more than that. It was almost as if they were having an entire conversation inside of their heads. Finally, Minato’s gaze softened a little and Hamuko nodded once before stepping into the circle, him following right behind. "Well, let’s do this."

"Just like that?" Akihiko asked, though the question was hot on Shinjiro's mind as well and must’ve been on Mitsuru’s too. "What do we do?"

„We watch. And under no circumstances do we enter that circle“ Junpei answered while Yukari nodded approvingly. 

"But what if something goes wrong?" The atmosphere between the five of them shifted instantly and he almost felt bad for asking in the first place. The two looked at each other, clearly uncomfortable, but after a moment of tense silence, Yukari spoke up.

"If push comes to shove, we do an exorcism, but that’s a last resort. But it’s never happened before, so you don’t have to worry."

Shinjiro wasn’t sure whether she was saying this to reassure him or herself, though he firmly hoped it was the former. In any case, the twins didn’t seem to be bothered. In fact, the two were so caught up in their preparations, the others might as well not have been there. 

And then, Minato looked directly at them and nodded. It was on.

Nothing happened. For a second Shinjiro thought the channeling had failed, but then he felt… well it was hard to describe. Like a cool gust on a summer night. Like jolting up from a nightmare at three in the morning. Like a door being opened. A door to a place he didn’t ever want to go. In other words, it was fucking creepy. At least he wasn’t the only one being affected by them trying to channel a goddamn dead person. Everyone else looked just as uncomfortable as he felt. Everyone except the twins. The two of them were kneeling inside of the circle, face to face, and looking completely relaxed, serene even. 

Then, something else happened. Hamuko opened her eyes, flinching at the sight around her.

"Wh- Please! Don’t hurt me!"

He’d known Hamuko Arisato for the grand entirety of one afternoon, but even Shinjiro could tell that it was not her speaking right now. Well, fuck him, they’d just summoned a spirit. 

"We mean you no harm," Minato calmly answered whoever it was possessing his sister’s body right now. It was almost strange seeing him talk to the spirit as if it was nothing out of the ordinary. Yeah, Shinjiro had seen some shit, but this still made him… uncomfortable, for the lack of a better word. "Do you have a name?"

"I- Chidori. My name is Chidori," the spirit answered in Hamuko’s voice. It was downright creepy to see someone else wearing her skin. 

"Chidori, do you know where you are?"

"This… this is the abandoned warehouse, right? At the harbor?" 

"Yes, It is. Chidori, this might be hard to hear but-"

"I’m dead. Yes, I know. But I’m still here. I’ve tried, really hard, but I can’t leave." Shinjiro physically flinched at how desperate she sounded.

"That’s because you’re bound to this place. We can help you with that, set you free." 

"I… I don’t know." Now that was weird. Just a moment ago it's seemed like she wanted nothing more than to get out of here. "He wants to keep me here, as punishment. If you help me he might get really mad at you."

"He? Who’s he?"

"Takaya." There was an intense, almost primal fear in her voice as she said the name. "He did this. He bound me here."

"Don’t worry about him. He probably won’t even notice you’re gone, and even if he does, we can handle ourselves."

"But…"

"Chidori, do you want to be free?"

"Yes." There was longing and raw pain in her voice. He didn’t know the first thing about that chick, but she’d clearly been through it. If that Takaya dude knew what was good for him he’d crawl back to wherever he’d come from and pray Shinjiro and him never crossed paths.

"Then let me help you. You’ve been through enough" Minato held out his hand and, reluctantly, she took it. 

He couldn’t have been sure what happened next, but, from one second to the next all the tension fell from Hamuko’s, no, Chidori’s face and she released a sigh of relief so deep, it suggested she’d been in pain for a very, very long time.

"Thank you."

With that, she was gone. There were no human-shaped mirages, no bright, flashing lights to announce the spirit was gone. Instead, Shinjiro felt a wave of energy, crashing outwards from where Hamuko was kneeling, strong enough to almost knock him off his feet. It was over. 

Minato was breathing heavily and, next to him, his sister had fallen over from the force of the blast. He reached out with his hand, gently touching her shoulder.

"Ham… it’s over." She didn’t react. A dark sense of foreboding spread through Shinjiro’s gut, freezing him in place. He couldn’t explain how he knew, but this was bad. "Ham?"

Her brother rolled her over so she was lying on her back, kneeling beside her and shaking her by the shoulders. She was pale as a sheet, her bangs plastered to her forehead with sweat. Then and again a shallow breath escaped her almost-blue lips. Oh fuck. _Fuckfuckfuck_. Her friends rushed to her side, eyes wide.

"Hamuko, wake up!", Yukari pleaded. When she didn’t Yukari slapped her across the face with a force that took him by surprise.

The slap echoed through the warehouse and still, Hamuko didn't move a muscle. Shinjiro's palms grew clammy with cold sweat, but he couldn't bring himself to do anything. The only thing that kept him from panicking completely was the fact that she was still breathing. She was alive, but who knew for how long. Next to him, Akihiko and Mitsuru seemed to be in a similarily useless state. 

Minato, on the other hand, had sprung into action. He was shaking her by the shoulders again, more forcefully this time, while begging and pleading for her to come back to him. No response. Junpei and Yukari were still kneeling next to the twins, panic written all over their faces.

Was this really happening? Shinjiro had come here to make some money and fuck back off to bed again. Spend the rest of the day doing absolutely nothing important and drag himself to work tomorrow. Now he could see himself talking to the police while they carted Hamuko off in a bodybag. The thought of it made him feel sick to the stomach.

Time passed, he couldn’t tell whether it had been seconds or hours, and Minato stopped his pleading. Everything went quiet and for a terrible second, he thought this was it.

Then, a gasp.

„What the fuck.“ Hamuko’s voice was hoarse and almost cracked, but she was alive. 

The entire room seemed to release one big, collective sigh of relief. Minato buried his face in his hands, making a noise that resembled a choked sob. Even though she'd been out cold just a second ago and looked like she’d been to hell and back, Hamuko tried sitting up and failing miserably. While her brother was still getting his bearings, Junpei and Yukari went to help her. He pushed and she pulled and somehow they managed to get Hamuko into a sitting position.

„Oh, sweet Jesus“, she ground out, sounding worn out but weirdly blasé about the entire situation. Apparently, her tone of voice didn’t sit too well with Yukari.

„You are the worst!“, she yelled, punching Hamuko in the arm.

„Wh- ouch!“

„We were worried you ass!“ Junpei doubled down, his tone not matching the harsh words. It was clear how relieved all of them were to have her back.

"You sure have a funny way of showing it!" Hamuko shot back, a grin already making its way onto her face. She really _was_ okay, huh?

Minato finally seemed to have gotten it together again, crossing the short distance between him and his sister and enveloping her in a hug. If he hadn't still been in a state of shock, Shinjiro might've found it heartwarming. Or cheesy.

"Ham, are you alright?" he asked as soon as they’d separated. "You’re ice cold…"

"I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck, but, yeah, I’m okay." Her brother and friends looked at her with varying degrees of disbelief, but, somehow, Shinjiro knew she was telling the truth. 

That’s when he felt like he should probably say something, but Akihiko was quicker.

"What happened?" Even if it seemed a bit tone-deaf at the moment, it was a good question. Besides, when it came to being a tactless idiot, Shinjiro was at least a million times worse than Akihiko, he'd proven that just this morning, so he had no business being mad about it.

"It was probably the binding," Hamuko replied, not at all offended. "It was really strong, so Minato and Chidori had to push really hard to send her over."

"And you almost went with her." The words came out of Minato in a horrified whisper. "God, Hamuko, I’m so sorry."

"It’s not your fault!" The reply came almost instantly but did nothing to wipe the haunted look off her brother’s face.

"Maybe not, but I still could’ve stopped it!" His voice was dripping with guilt.

"Look, arguing about it isn’t going to get us anywhere." Thankfully, Yukari had said something before this could escalate into a full-blown argument. As happy as Shinjiro was to see her alive and well, he did not sign up for family drama hours. "Ham’s fine, that’s what matters." 

"Exactly, so let’s cleanse the place and finish up here." From the way Minato was looking at her it was clear that there’d be a discussion about the whole mess later, even if he was willing to let it go for now.

"Dude, can you even stand?" Junpei asked, clearly not convinced. 

"Sure I can! Just let me-" With that, she scrambled to her feet, only to almost keel over again a moment later. If it hadn’t been for her friends holding onto her she’d be right back on the floor. 

"Yeah, right. You need to rest, Ham."

For a moment she looked as if she might start an argument about it, but then her expression fell and she released a big sigh.

"Alright, you got me. Can I rest outside though? I’d like some fresh air."

"You sure? It’s windy and you are still, well, cold." She sure looked it. Even though it wasn’t nearly as bad as just a few minutes ago, her lips were still an unhealthy purple and she was kind of pale.

"Yes, I am. I need to clear my head a little."

"Alright, but then take my jacket at least. If you manage to get yourself down with pneumonia I’m gonna be so pissed," Yukari said, handing her jacket over to Hamuko who, after a moment of consideration, put it on over her own. "I’m sorry, but do you guys mind finishing up in here?"

"No problem at all. So far you guys have done all the work anyway, time for us to pull our weight!" 

Akihito started pulling the right equipment out of his bag while Hamuko was being led outside by her friends, leaning heavily on her brother. To be honest, she looked a bit ridiculous with the two jackets and the symbols on her forehead, but she was okay. That’s what mattered. Putting his mind to the task in front of him, he let Akihiko hand him a smudge stick and started getting to work.

When it was done and over with the three of them, who still hadn’t spoken about what the actual fuck had just happened, packed up and left the warehouse. Hopefully for good. When they stepped outside though, it was to the twins arguing right next to the door while the other two just stood there, hands in their pockets and looking uncomfortable as all hell.

"Come on, we can do this! At this point, we’re basically professionals." Whatever Hamuko was talking about, she sounded like she meant business. Minato, on the other hand, wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic as her. 

"No, we’re a bunch of chucklefucks in over their heads!" 

"Speak for yourself!", she shot back. Minato just crossed his arms and sighed.

"Ham, this isn’t up for discussion."

"And since when are you the one who gets to call the shots! Last time I checked, our group of 'chucklefucks' was a democracy." She gestured at the other two as if to prove a point, but they didn’t seem too thrilled with what she was on about. 

"Actually, Ham… I think Minato is right on this one." Hamuko whirled around to face Junpei, a look of total disbelief in her eyes. 

"It’s not like we have a clue as to where that Takaya person might be," Yukari chimed in. 

So that's what this was all about. The case.

"But we can work around that! If we do enough research we can find him." Even though she sounded convinced, the others clearly weren’t happy with the idea „We still don’t know what happened to Chidori during the year the warehouse was empty and, for all we know, Takaya might do it again! Chidori… she was in so much pain, I could feel it.“

"We’re not pursuing this any further. Yes, we don’t know what happened, but the spirit is gone now. Case closed." Minato’s tone didn’t leave any room for debate, but his sister still didn’t look convinced, so Yukari tried again instead.

"Ham, channeling today really did a number on you. Whoever Takaya is, he is powerful and dangerous." 

"No shit. I was there, remember? And I managed." 

"No, you didn’t!" Minato finally snapped. "When we tried to wake you up you didn’t react. Shit Hamuko, you looked like a living corpse. We… thought you weren’t coming back." That one finally seemed to have an effect on her. Instead of coming up with a retort, she just stared at her feet, the guilt in her eyes speaking volumes. 

"Look, I know you want to help, but you can’t put yourself at risk like that. When I thought I’d lost you… I can’t even describe how much it hurt." There was a pleading on his face and his voice broke towards the end of the sentence. 

"You’re right… I’m sorry." Her voice was impossibly small and when she looked at her brother again she was just a tad bit teary-eyed.

Shinjiro felt awful. He knew he was intruding on a private moment, but they still needed to move this along. Getting back home as soon as possible would be best for Hamuko as well. So, he awkwardly cleared his throat, the other group turning towards him immediately.

"We’re done in there. Everything should be back too normal." If Hamuko, or anyone else, felt uncomfortable they didn’t show it. 

"Thanks!" The solemn look in her eyes was gone in a flash, replaced by a grin, despite everything that'd just happened. At her enthusiasm, he couldn't help the smile creeping onto his lips as well.

"We’re off to pick up our share of the money, you want to tag along?" he offered, despite himself. Just a while ago he’d wanted to get rid of them, but now… turned out life-threatening situations really did bring people together.

"Thanks for the offer, but no," Minato replied, softly shaking his head. "We’re calling a cab and taking Hamuko home." Shinjiro nodded. That was probably for the best, though the person in question seemed to think otherwise.

"You don’t all have to come! Not on my behalf anyway."

"Oh, we’re coming with. We’ll just go pick up the money later." Yukari quickly cut in.

"Fine. But only because I’m too tired to fight you on this," she answered after releasing a big sigh "Anyway, nice working with you guys. See you around?" Even though Hamuko was addressing all there of them, her eyes rested solely on Shinjiro. He fumbled for an answer but, as so often, Mitsuru was faster.

"I’m sure we’ll meet again. It would be a pleasure working another case together." He had nothing to add to that so, along with Akihiko, he just nodded and casually waved them goodbye.

With that they walked off, leaving the others to wait for their cab. Usually, Shinjiro wasn’t the kind of person who thought about a job once they were done with it, but Hamuko did have a point. What had happened during that one year and what was the deal with Takaya? The questions stayed with him long after he was back home, the payment for the job tucked away for safekeeping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Again thank you for reading and any kudos or comments <3


	2. Consequences (Are a Bitch)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo, I'm down and ready to clown with another chapter! This one really gets the plot rolling, but I hope I fit in enough interactions to still make it fun to read. I also updated the chapter estimate since, uh, 4 chapters won't be enough lmao
> 
> Enjoy and thanks for any Kudos and, especially, comments, they make my day <3

Everyone who'd ever worked in retail knew that some days, time could go by unbearably slowly when no customers were around. Shinjiro was experiencing that exact phenomenon right now. It was a slow afternoon, even for the small grocery store he worked at. And that was accounting for the fact that they didn’t get that many customers in the first place. There wasn’t even another employee around he could pass the time with, as the store was small enough for one to handle on most days. In short, it was mind-numbingly boring. Maybe he should’ve gone to university after all…

The tell-tale sound of the bell at the door ringing softly, consequently announcing a new customer, brought him back to reality. He didn't manage to look in time to see who it was, so it came as a surprise when, after a few minutes, none other than Hamuko Arisato stepped out from behind one of the shelves, a bag in hand. When she noticed who was standing behind the counter, a small smile appeared on her face. At seeing her like that, a feeling of relief passed through him. She’d recovered from the channeling. 

"Shinjiro! I didn’t know you worked here." That’s because he didn’t tell a lot of people. Fresh out of high school he hadn’t been bothered by the low-level jobs he’d worked to flood the bill, but now, among people with master degrees and jobs in prestigious companies, he was almost embarrassed to mention it. She didn’t seem bothered by the circumstances of their meeting at all though. „It’s nice to see you again!“ 

"Good to see you too. You seem better." She tilted her head as if she didn’t know what he was talking about, so he helped her along. "After what happened at the warehouse, I mean." 

"Oh, that." The way she said it, all casual, made him think she was either putting on a show for his sake or had a serious reckless streak. Maybe both. "I was a bit under the weather for the rest of the day, but it was fine, don’t worry!" 

"Don’t worry? You realize you almost died, right?"

"The keyword here being almost! But sorry for worrying you. It must’ve been a sight." That one struck him as odd. She ought to worry about herself, not him. 

"Sure was, but don’t apologize. Strange things happen on the job."

"Oh, word." There were at least a hundred stories hidden behind that sentence, and he had some to match. Maybe someday they’d get to share. 

The thought took him by surprise. Naturally, the only people in his life who knew about the whole paranormal investigation business were Akihiko and Mitsuru. Everyone else would just think he was out of his mind. Still, during the last two years, he’d never experienced the feeling of wanting to tell someone else about the insane things he did for a living. Until now. Not that it mattered. She was here to buy some food, not to have a chat about ghosts.

"That all?" he asked, pointing at the bag, which he found upon closer inspection, contained a bunch of peaches.

"Actually, do you have some painkillers?" 

"We’re not a drugstore." 

"Yeah, of course."

"Why, are you hurt?" Usually, he wouldn’t have bothered asking, but he did now. 

"Ah, it’s just a headache, don’t worry." 

He nodded, scanning the barcode on the little sticker stuck to the bag. She paid up, he put the cash into the register and counted out the change. That was that, then. She gave him a smile and a wave of her hand, ready to walk out. It was one of these moments where he felt like he should say something but wasn’t sure why.

"There’s a drugstore a little further down the street if you still need those painkillers." 

"Thanks. See you on the job sometime?" Maybe he was imagining things, but she sounded almost… hopeful. 

He was about to answer but was startled by the sound of the bag hitting the floor. The easygoing smile on Hamuko’s face was gone, replaced by an expression of intense discomfort. The headache? The way it looked it was more of a full-blown migraine though. She was bracing herself on the counter to remain upright, her knuckles turning white from gripping onto the edges. It looked like she was in pain, alright. While that was worrying enough, what really set off his alarm bells was what happened just a second later. 

For a second he thought she was looking directly at him, eyes wide and full of something almost resembling fear. But that wasn’t it. She was looking right through him. 

And then, in a voice barely louder than a whisper she said „Who are you?!“ 

Finally, it hit him. She was _seeing_ something, not that he had any idea what the fuck it was or how to deal with it. But he knew someone who might. Minato.

How to get a hold of him though? Hamuko wasn’t in any condition to talk and Shinjiro didn’t have his number. He might be able to get it from Igor, but the Velvet Room’s phone line was unreliable at best. Usually, they called you about a job, but scarcely picked up themselves and left you to walk all the way across the city if you wanted something. If he had anything to say about it, they’d hear a good, long rant about customer service by yours truly after all this was over. 

For now though, the only way he could think of to call Minato was to use Hamuko’s phone.

"Hamuko, can you hear me?!" He might as well not have been there. She still wasn’t looking at him, mumbling a never-ending string of words he couldn’t quite understand under her breath. All he could make out was the occasional "Get out!" and "Leave me alone!"

"Hey, Hamuko!", he tried again, this time shaking her by the shoulders as hard as he dared. 

Again, no response. So, she couldn’t give it to him but he was pretty sure she still had her phone on her. He checked the small bag she’d brought with her. No luck. Under normal circumstances he'd have felt awful for rummaging through her stuff like that, hell he still felt weird about it now, but if he wanted to find that phone he didn’t have much of a choice. Next, he checked the pockets of her coat. Bingo! 

Alright, he had the phone now, but that didn’t get him very far unless he could guess her combination, and what were the chances of that. Still, he had no choice but to try. First, he typed in 1234. Nothing. Then 5678. Again, nothing but an error message. Frantically, he punched in the next best combination he could come up with, 0000. The phone unlocked. 

Thank fuck.

It wasn’t hard to find Minato’s name in her list of contacts. It was embellished with, both, a heart and the poop emoji and if the situation hadn’t been so god-awful he’d have taken a second to smile about it. Instead, without wasting another moment, he pressed the little green call symbol and raised the phone to his head. With every beeping noise coming from the otherwise quiet line Shinjiro grew more agitated. Pick up _goddamnit!_

"Ham, what’s up?"

"This is Shinjiro Aragaki, from the warehouse job."

"Wha-" He sounded understandably surprised, but Shinjiro couldn’t afford to waste time on a proper greeting. 

"Look, Hamuko is here and she’s having some sort of… ghost migraine. She’s seeing something." The description didn’t feel nearly adequate, but it was the best he could come up with.

"Is she alright?!"

"No!"

Way not to make anyone panic, but at least it seemed to get the message across. Problem was, Minato didn’t seem to know much more than Shinjiro did, at least not without seeing what was happening for himself.

"What do you mean 'no'!?" he answered, sounding as confused as Shinjiro felt.

"Look, I’m not the expert on weird mind stuff so could you _fucking get over here?!"_

He knew he was being rude, especially considering the circumstances, but as long as it drove the point home, that didn’t really matter. And, oh, did it get the point across. Minato immediately agreed and Shinjiro quickly gave him the address in return.

"Alright, I’m on my way!"

With that, he turned his attention to Hamuko again. She was clutching her head in both hands now, still mumbling incomprehensibly under her breath. He didn’t have the foggiest what to do and, slowly but surely, panic set in. His mind was working frantically, trying to come up with some way to help. And then he remembered it - his talisman. The one he used to protect himself against ghosts of the more aggressive sort.

He didn’t use to carry it around all the time, but after forgetting to take it along to the job one too many times and a rant by both Mitsuru and Akihiko, he’d started wearing it around every day. It was a long shot, but maybe it’d come in handy now. He pulled the charm out of his back pocket. It was a simple little thing, just some metal bent into a symbol attached to a leather band. Akihiko had dug up the 'recipe' for it a while ago and shared it with the others, but Shinjiro had made the thing himself. Needless to say, it wasn’t exactly pretty, not that how it looked was important. If it worked, and Shinjiro prayed it would, that was enough. 

Without wasting another moment, he lifted the necklace and settled it around Hamuko’s neck. No reaction. Just Hamuko clutching her head in pain. He was about to panic completely, because what the fuck else could he do, when finally, finally, she reacted. 

_"Get out!"_

The shout was so loud and powerful, he involuntarily took a step back, but that wasn’t all of it. Shinjiro had never been sensitive to paranormal events. Unlike the twins, he couldn’t feel a spirit’s presence or do whatever it was the two of them could because of their 'weirdness'. But just now he’d felt something happen, he was sure of it. Whatever, he'd think about it later.

"Hamuko? You good?"

"Shinjiro?" Her eyes had found his, a confused expression in them. "How long was I-"

"Just a few minutes." She remained silent. "Still scared the crap out of me though," he added, attempting to dispel some of the tension that had taken over the space. It worked, though not in the way he wanted.

"Oh shit, I’m sorry! I feel completely fine now though, so don’t worry about it anymore!" There. She was doing it again. Playing it down. While it was true that she didn’t look nearly as bad as she had after the warehouse incident, he didn’t want to take any chances either. 

He flipped the little sign on the front door from 'open' to 'closed' and gestured for her to follow him into the employee’s breakroom. She could rest up there until Minato arrived and, if they were going to talk ghost stuff, doing it on the sales-floor was a bad idea anyway. After he closed the door behind them, he leaned up against the wall, looking intently at her for a moment before speaking up.

"What the hell just happened?" 

"I- I think I’m going to need a second to think." Understandable. If he was being honest, he could stand a little break too.

"Yeah, of course. You should sit down for now though." Instead of sitting down on the couch though, she just looked at him with an expression he couldn’t quite place. "Do you feel dizzy or something? I can get you some water." 

Hamuko shook her head, remaining where she stood. 

"I’m fine now, so-" The deflection set something off in him. Something unpleasant. Somewhere, deep in his mind, he knew she just didn’t want him to worry, but he wasn’t about to have it. 

"If you dare end that sentence with 'don’t worry', I swear to god!" He gestured to the couch at the back of the break room again. "Now sit the hell down." She sighed and plopped down on the couch, hands crossed in front of her. 

"Alright, chill." For some reason, that, her too-casual behavior, was what finally did it. All of a sudden, a strange kind of anger flooded through him and he couldn’t seem to hold back.

" _Chill?!_ I’ve met you a grand total of two times, but you managed to get roped into some crazy-ass ghost shit during both of them, so don’t tell me to chill!" 

For a second her face went completely blank. Then, she exploded.

 **"I didn’t ask to be the resident medium you asshole!"** It wasn’t the sudden burst of anger that took him aback, it was the hurt that shone through in her voice in spite of it. "Look, I get that people aren’t exactly comfortable hanging around a walking freak-show, but if it pisses you off that much, I’ll just leave." With that, she got up again and turned towards the door.

This wasn’t what he’d meant, but a sudden wave of guilt and shame came crashing over him when he realized that was exactly how it’d sounded. She could've hit himself upon seeing how defeated and hurt she looked.

"No, wait!" He reached out to grab her forearm but pulled his hand back at the last moment. "Look, I’m sorry for acting like an ass, alright? But please, for the love of God, stay put until your brother gets here." What a sad excuse of an apology. If she still wanted to walk out, he wouldn’t blame her. 

But she didn’t. Instead, at the mention of her brother's name, she turned around and looked at him with a genuine surprise written all over her face.

"Minato is coming here?" 

"Yeah, I called him from your phone while you were… you know. Your pin code sucks by the way." She bit her lip, looking conflicted and, after a moment of consideration sat back down. 

"Gee, thanks." The words might’ve indicated otherwise, but she didn’t sound angry at him anymore. "Seriously though, thank you for calling him. And I’m sorry too, for blowing up on you." Somehow that made him feel even worse. She wasn’t the one who needed to apologize. As so often though, his answer failed to convey how sorry he was.

"Can’t blame you for that. You had a rough one." 

"Tell me about it." She sighed and went quiet for a second, before asking, "Actually, uh… could I still get that water?" He just nodded, glad she’d finally accepted his help.

" 'Course." 

He walked back out onto the sales floor to go get a bottle of water. It was then when he encountered an unexpected problem. What kind of water did she like? Some people, himself included, hated sparkling. She’d also been too cold after the warehouse incident, so cooled was probably not a good idea, right? In the end, he settled on a bottle of still water, not cooled. He took the thing to the counter, scanned it in, and paid for it with some change from his pockets. He might not have looked it, but Shinjito liked having things neat, tidy and in order, the store’s inventory being no exception. Besides, the water was barely 100 yen, so he didn’t mind paying. After snapping the cash register closed again, he made his way back to the breakroom.

"Here," he said as he held out the bottle towards her. She looked at it, then at him, as if she was unsure whether to take it after all. 

"Thanks," she finally answered, taking the water-bottle from him and opening it, taking a few big gulps. It was obvious what had happened just now was a sore topic for her, so he was glad that she’d accepted his help at last. 

After that, they just sat there for a while, neither of them saying a word. Shinjiro kept his eyes on the floor to avoid having to look at her. He’d never been the talkative type, but even he was bothered by the tense silence that had settled over them in the wake of their sudden argument and tentative apologies. In other words, it was awkward as hell. 

Oh, screw it. If she wasn’t going to say something, he would.

"Does this sort of thing happen often?" It wasn’t exactly a sensible topic, considering everything that’d just happened. Then again, he’d never been the most sensible person. 

Curiously enough, she answered regardless. She still wasn’t looking at him, but there wasn’t any lingering anger left in her voice either. 

"Never. Not since I was ten, anyway." She still wasn’t looking at him, but when she spoke there wasn’t any lingering anger left in her voice either. 

"Ten?!" She’d been talking to ghosts when she was that young? 

"Yeah, when I was a kid my weirdness, or whatever you want to call it, was a lot stronger. Spirits used to pop into my head a lot back then. I don’t know what it was about Minato and I, but they always seemed to follow us around." 

"Just how long have you been involved with all this?" If finding out the paranormal actually existed, for real and not just in some outlandish conspiracy-theories, as a full-grown adult had been shocking, what must it have been like for a kid?

"My brother and I been able to, I don’t even know how to describe it, perceive things ever since-" She abruptly stopped, looking away from him.

"Ever since what?" Only then did it occur to him that she might not want to talk about it especially after what had just happened. Great going, asshole. "Sorry, didn’t mean to pry."

"No, it’s okay, I don’t mind telling you. We’ve been able to perceive spirits and stuff ever since our parents died." Oh. No surprise she hadn’t wanted to tell him. "When we were six we got into a pretty bad car crash. I don’t remember much, apparently, I almost didn’t make it either. But it’s okay now, it’s been a long time."

She might say that but Shinjiro knew, maybe better than anyone, that it was not okay. His parents were gone too and while he didn’t remember them very well, he still felt the loss of having had to grow up without them. 

"I’m sorry." He could’ve left it at that but, a little voice, coming from his chest rather than his head, urged him to continue. "But you don’t have to pretend it’s alright. I lost my parents too, so I get how hard it can be." 

Dealing with feelings had always been something he was exceptionally bad at so It wasn’t a big surprise he never talked about his parents’ death. Akihiko knew how he felt, but because they’d gone through the same thing together, day in, day out. But not even to his best friend had he admitted that he still missed his parents. Not in words anyway. What in the world was it about Hamuko Arisato that made him want to talk about it?

Her eyes widened and for a second he was afraid he’d overshared, but then her lips curved into a reluctant smile.

"In that case… I still miss them. Every day." There was sadness in her voice, but also an honesty he hadn’t expected from a near stranger. Part of him felt honored she’d shown him that much, especially after how he’d acted just a few minutes ago. "God, way to kill the mood. We’re a bunch of downers, huh?"

"C’mon, you’re not that bad." 

"And you are?" He had to physically repress a sigh. If only she knew. 

"I’m a whole 'nother story." Instead of making her drop the subject, as intended, she released a chuckle. When he looked at her again, there was a grin on her face. 

"You know, your bad-boy persona was fun while it lasted, but you can drop it now. I see through it."

"What are you-"

"Hamuko!" 

The voice cutting him off so abruptly came from the other room. She immediately jumped up from the sofa and towards the door upon hearing it. Minato, then. On exiting the breakroom Shinjiro saw that he was flushed in the face and breathing heavily. It was obvious he’d ran all the way here, but the tension left him the second he saw that his sister was alright. Minato slowly walked up to her and put a hand on her shoulder. 

"Thank god, you’re okay." She smiled and nodded in response before saying something that, at least to Shinjiro, came completely out of left field. 

"You can thank Shinjiro for that, he took care of me." He hadn’t expected that, especially not after their fight earlier.

"I didn’t do all that much! It was nothin', really," he quickly deflected. 

"Still, thank you." Minato looked at him with an expression of genuine gratitude, before continuing a few moments later. "So, what happened?" At the question, Hamuko visibly tensed up, her casual attitude replaced by a seriousness he hadn’t expected, coming from her.

"It’s Takaya. He was in my head." Wait, what?! Good thing Shinjiro hadn't gotten any water for himself, because he’d definitely done a spit-take at that. Immediately, a heavy sense of unease settled deep in his stomach. "I don’t know how he managed to do this, but he’s mad Minato. Real mad." Her brother's expression grew tense.

"Because of Chidori." It wasn’t a question. "Shit."

Shinjiro himself couldn’t have put it better.

"What did he say to you?" He could hear in Minato’s voice that he was doing his best to remain calm, but a silver of panic still shone through. The way Hamuko nervously looked away from him, pausing for just a second too long before giving her answer already clued Shinjiro in on how bad it was.

"That he’d make me pay for helping set Chidori free. That he’d make all of us pay." 

'Make them pay' wasn’t awfully specific, but it was pretty menacing as far as threats went. It could mean virtually anything and thinking back to some of the more vicious spirits he’d worked had him shiver involuntarily. He was by no means a coward, but some of them had literally tried to kill the people living and working in the spaces they resided in. 

"Wait, so you’re saying some crazy ghost has it out for us?!"

"Yes," Minato answered, seeming a bit too calm, considering the mess they were in. "And we need to do something about it, but…"

"The problem is we don’t know what he’s planning," Hamuko finished her brother’s sentence. "Damn, we don’t even know if he’s human or a spirit at this point. All we have is a name."

"How could he be human? I mean, if he is, how did he get into Hamuko’s head? I’ve never heard of anyone able to do that."

"Because he’s powerful. I felt it, in the binding, and when he was all up in my mind," Hamuko immediately replied. "Still, no human being should be able to do that… if he’s alive there’s something very wrong about him." No kidding. The entire situation was wrong. 

"Just great. Do you think he’s about to pop into any of our heads soon?"

"No. I think he went for Hamuko because she’s the only one he _could_ get to like that. She’s more susceptible to the paranormal."

"Because I’m weird." The tone of her voice lay somewhere between bitter and ashamed and he felt even worse about what he’d said to her earlier. No doubt it was a sensitive topic for her, not that he could blame her.

"Because you’re _a medium_ ," her brother thankfully cut in. "Anyway, that still doesn’t mean everyone else is out of the woods yet."

True. Takaya might not be able to get into Hamuko’s, or anyone else’s head anymore, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t dangerous. Whether he was alive or a spirit, there were countless possibilities he could make their lives a living hell. Until they stopped him. 

"We don’t have a choice then. We need to find Takaya." 

"Yeah…" Hamuko nodded weakly. "But you don’t need to get involved with that!" 

Yeah, fat chance.

"No, I’m helping. So are Mitsuru and Aki." She looked like she was about to protest, so he quickly continued. "We were on that job together, and we all got paid for it. Wouldn’t be fair to turn our backs on you now. Besides, we don’t know if you’re the only one he’s after."

"But-"

"If you really don’t want us around, you have to take it up with Aki and Mitsuru first. Good luck with that." There was no doubt the two of them would want in on this and no matter how headstrong Hamuko was, winning an argument against Mitsuru was practically impossible.

"Alright," she finally conceded, letting Minato pick it up from there.

"In that case, we need to talk. All of us. And as soon as possible." No arguments there. "You think you can arrange that?" All of them were busy with work and all the other stuff life tended to throw at you, but this was an emergency and time was of the essence, so he figured they’d be able to make time. Probably even tonight.

"Sure. Where do you guys want to meet?"

"We could do our place?" Hamuko offered. "If you don’t mind, I mean. It might be a bit cramped with all of us, but we have some protective spells around the flat, so it’d be hard to listen in on us." 

"Sounds good." The more the place was fortified against that Takaya asshole, the better. "I’ll call up the others and let you know as soon as I can."

"Great, thanks. We better head home and do the same then."

The two left and Shinjiro opened up shop again, but not before calling Akihiko and Mitsuru first. Their responses to what he had to tell them were about the same as his, sans the 'near meltdown while Hamuko was being possessed' thing. And, yes, both of them immediately decided that they’d help. After a bit of discussion and some re-scheduling on Mitsuru’s part, they decided that meeting the others tonight was doable. After sending Hamuko a quick text about the situation, the confirmation that the meeting was indeed being held tonight, came only a few minutes after. Good. No need to give Takaya more time to mess shit up.

Between the end of his shift and getting to the twin’s apartment, he barely had the time to grab some food from a street vendor but, in the bigger scheme of things, dinner wasn’t all that important. 

As it turned out, he was the last to arrive. Upon ascending the stairs all the way up to the fifth floor and being let into the flat by Minato he saw that the other’s were already sitting on the couch, or on the floor, around a low table, the atmosphere thick and heavy. After some hurried greetings, they started getting straight down to business. All in all, these were the conclusions they came to: First, Takaya was dangerous and none of them were safe until they apprehended him which lead to second, they needed to act quickly. From now on, this case was their number-one priority. Problem was, they didn’t know a thing about the guy, so, number three, they’d start out by gathering as much information as possible. 

Apparently, the place to start their investigations was Hamuko herself. Mitsuru immediately started questioning her on what exactly had happened to her, trying to extract some clues or otherwise valuable information from her and the others, save for Minato and himself, soon joined in. Relentlessly, she was being flooded with their questions.

If he was being honest, Shinjiro felt kind of bad for her. Still, he couldn’t help but admire how calm she was being about the almost-interrogation. If all of this had happened to him and the others were trying to pull information out of his nose like that, even if they meant well, he’d probably combust. 

After thoroughly dissecting Hamuko’s earlier experience, they decided to call the meeting. From now on it was research, until one of them found something. Still, they scheduled another meeting five days from now, in case there were no breakthroughs until then. Personally, Shinjiro felt awfully powerless, not being able to do anything tangible. After all, he was at his most useful out on the field. 

Only when, after their discussion, he got up from his seat on the floor did he notice the strange interior of the twin’s flat. Almost every available wall was lined with bookshelves, both, real ones, and wooden boxes repurposed to act as makeshift ones, filled to the brim with books. They were crammed onto the shelves in a way that was efficient, rather than pretty and a lot of them looked really old. Whatever free space remained on the walls was plastered with posters of hand-drawn symbols and astronomical charts. He was about ninety-nine sure all that stuff was related to the paranormal. Not that it was out of the ordinary for them to have an interest in it since, well… their unusual past. Minato apparently noticed his interest and told him he was free to look around as long as he was careful with the more fragile books. 

Mitsuru and Akihiko, though neither of them were too happy about that, had to run, so they said their goodbyes and left Shinjiro to explore the strange 'library' on his own for a bit. The others were talking in the kitchen and, though he couldn’t make out anything specific, the conversation sounded much more relaxed than their impromptu meeting before. He’d already gotten the feeling back on the job, but the four really were friends, rather than just partners. The thought made him smile a little, subconsciously conjuring an image of his own little group.

Not wanting to intrude any longer and, quite frankly, being tired as hell, Shinjiro excused himself and put on his coat and shoes, ready to leave. He already had one hand on the door-handle when someone touched him by the wrist. Turning around, he saw Hamuko standing in the foyer with him. 

"Hey uh, can I ask you something?" Even though he had no idea what it might be about, he couldn’t just say no. 

"Shoot." She nodded, pulled something out of her pocket, and held it out towards him so that he could see. It was the talisman he’d given her at the store.

"This is yours, right? I only noticed it when I came home." Oh, right. After all the confusion he’d totally forgotten she still had it. If she’d been too far gone when he’d put it on her, he might as well give he ran explanation why she had it. 

"Yeah, I gave it to you earlier, when Takaya… Anyway, It’s a protective charm."

"So that’s what…"

"Helped? I guess so. You managed to snap out of it after I put it on you."

"Then that must’ve been it! When I was trying to fight off Takaya, I felt something all of a sudden. And then I was able to kick him out!"

"Felt something?"

"Yes, it was, man it’s kind of hard to explain… a feeling of warmth. And comfort. All of a sudden, I felt safe."

"Ah, I- I’m glad it helped." He just couldn’t help being flustered. Usually, other people saw Shinjiro as anything but a source of comfort. What she'd felt was probably just the protective charm. Must’ve been.

"Anyway, you should take it back now that I’m fine." She held the talisman out towards him again, but he didn’t take it. If it had helped, she ought to keep it, so she’d be at least protected against people trying to pop into her head.

"No, keep it for now, you need it more than me. Don’t want Takaya trying any shit again." 

"But-" He interrupted her before they could make a full-blown discussion out of it. 

"I’ll just make another one, don’t worry about it." Her eyes widened and she looked back at the Talisman in her hand, examining it closely, even though it was rather plain. 

"Wait, you made this?" There was something awfully close to awe in her voice when she said it, even though the thing could hardly be called pretty.

"I had help from Aki but, yeah, I did." At that, her eyes lit up like a Christmas tree.

"That’s amazing! I’ve never seen anything like it before."

He could hear the genuine admiration in her voice, but, and the thing was this, Shinjiro had never been any good at taking compliments. Actually, he was complete shit at it. They were rare, sure. At least the genuine ones were, but every single time he got one he didn’t know how to handle it. He almost felt like he was deceiving people, or leading them on when they truly thought well of him.

"The credit is all Aki’s, really. You oughta thank him instead." By now he could feel the heat creeping up his neck. 

"I don’t think so! You made it, after all!" Something changed in her expression when she looked back at him though. Maybe she saw that he couldn’t quite deal with the situation, so, in a calmer tone she added, "But I’ll make sure to thank him too."

He nodded and for a second they just stood there, neither saying a word. The silence wasn’t uncomfortable, not per se, but there was something… strange about it. Almost as if he didn’t mind if it lasted a little longer. But they weren’t getting any younger standing around here, so went ahead and broke it. 

"I’d better catch up with Aki and Mitsuru. See you when we have a lead." 

"For sure. I’ll start looking into Chidori and Takaya right now!" Her enthusiasm easily could’ve fooled anyone else, but Shinjiro knew first hand what had happened a few hours ago. 

„You probably haven’t taken a step back since this afternoon.“ The expression on her face was enough for him to know he’d hit the nail on the head. She just wasn’t the type to take a break when shit hit the fan like that. To be fair, the only reason he was able to call her out on it was because Shinjiro was the same. Not that she needed to know, about it.

"I’m not-" She immediately tried to deflect, but he wasn’t about to have any of it. 

"Weak? I know that, you idiot." He was telling the truth but, still, his words seemed to give her pause. "You’re pretty hardcore for dealing with all of this as if it’s nothing, but you still gotta rest. Ain’t no shame in that." She bit her lip, seeming to contemplate what he’d just said. Then, finally, she nodded. 

"Alright, I will."

"Good. You’d better not be lying," he doubled down. 

"Or what?" A playful expression had made its way back onto her face, her mouth turned upwards into a grin. Even though she was tasing him, he couldn’t help but smile back. 

"You’re impossible, you know that" he answered, meaning it, but with a hint of a laugh in his voice nevertheless.

Yes, she _was_ impossible. But more than that she had bite and, maybe even more importantly, she had heart. And then there was something else to Hamuko Arisato, something he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no, they don't get to catch a break.
> 
> hope you had fun reading and see you on the next one!


	3. Got Ourselves a Situation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back at it again at krispy kreme with another chapter of this trainwreck! This time around Ham _finally_ has the chance (the first of many, I promise) to do something badass. There's still a lot of build-up in this one, but I swear we'll be getting down to it soon. This one also might be a bit heavier on the wearing, but I did try to keep it to a minimum. Also had to up the number of total chapters again bc this keeps getting longer and longer…
> 
> IMPORTANT: TRIGGER WARNING FOR MENTION OF SUICIDE
> 
> Enjoy and thanks for reading and any kudo or comment, they really keep me going through this whole mess <3

It’d only been three days since the Takaya incident at the store and the meeting at the twins’ the same night, but, to Shinjiro, it felt more like ages. Some maniac having it out for you for freeing the souls of the dead, which he kept imprisoned to about the least inviting place in town, tended to do that to you. Or, at least, so he assumed. It wasn’t like this had happened to him before. 

What made the whole thing worse was that, despite him spending every single second of his free time researching, he still hadn’t found a damn thing about Takaya. Same thing on Mitsuru’s or Akihiko’s end. The man might as well not exist at all. The fact that he hadn’t tried anything again, at least not that he knew about, was only a small consolation. After the threat he’d made to Hamuko, chances that he’d just give up were close to zero. 

That was the next thing he’d been worrying about near-constantly. Hamuko. He wasn’t exactly sure why it was just her when Takaya was after all of them, but it probably had to do with the fact that she seemed to just draw the trouble towards her. Either way, Shinjiro was worried about her, more than he was comfortable with. All the more reason to concentrate on research. 

Sighing deeply he rubbed his temples for a blissful moment before turning his eyes back to the laptop in front of him and clicking another link. All this screen-time was starting to give him a headache. He was about to, probably fruitlessly, dig through another website that looked like made by a bunch of basement-dwelling conspiracy theorists, when his phone came alight with a new text. He couldn’t exactly afford a distraction right now, but as soon as he took a glance to see who the text was from, he immediately unlocked the phone.

[from hamuko]: we found something important, can you call rn?

Thank fuck. He felt as if he was about to go mad any second now, looking at all those websites.

[to hamuko]: of course, call you in a moment 

All of them had exchanged numbers at the emergency meeting, a fact that came in pretty handy right now. It took him all of three seconds to press the little call button next to her name and even less time for her to pick up.

"Shinjiro!" Well, someone sure sounded eager. 

"You said you found a lead?" 

"Yes! Nothing about Takaya but we found the one who identified Chidori’s body after it was found. If he knew her, there’s a chance he knows Takaya too." Now that was Interesting. It might not be a direct lead, but, at this point, every little thing helped.

"How’d you find that guy?"

"When we couldn’t find anything about Takaya, we started looking into Chidori. We found an article about her death on some tabloid’s website that mentions a Jin Shirato." Smart approach. He hadn't even thought of it. Maybe working with someone outside of his regular team wasn't that bad after all. 

"We’ll need to pay him a visit, then." 

"Actually, that’s why I’m calling. We managed to find out where he lives. Junpei and I are planning to meet there at nine and I wanted to ask if you’d mind coming along." Not at all. In fact, he’d been itching to do something more tangible than unsuccessful digging the past three days. No way in hell was he going to miss this. 

"I’ll be there." There was one more question he needed answered first though, even if it wasn’t directly related to what was going on. "How'd you even manage to get the address?"

"Well, we had to do some digging and lying to employees at his gas-company, but it got us there in the end." Wasn’t that a surprise. Apparently, the other group was much more resourceful than he’d given them credit for.

"Sounds pretty illegal to me." Teasing her probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do right now, but he couldn’t help it. 

"Oh, can it!" A giggle reverberated in her voice, making him smile as well. "I’ll send you the address and a link to that article, so you can see for yourself."

"Great, thanks. See you at nine."

"See you."

Not ten seconds after the end of the call, two more texts came in. One with the address and another one containing a link. He decided to check out the article first. When he clicked on the string of letters and numbers, it led him to a website that wasn’t quite as trashy as the ones he’d been having to dig through but still assaulted his eyes with big, colorful headlines and an onslaught of pictures and text.

_Young woman found dead in Tatsumi-Port City!_

_Two days ago, on the 26th of August, a body was found in the bay-area of Tatsumi-Port Island, a part of the city going by the same name. The Identity of the victim is Chidori Yoshino who, at the time of death, was only 25 years old. The body was found floating in the water with no external injuries, save for a cut on the left palm and showing no signs of a struggle or being restrained. The death is still being investigated, but it is highly possible the police will rule it a suicide. No relatives have stepped forward, but the body could be identified by a friend of Yoshino’s, Jin Shirato._

_We pray that this young woman’s soul finds the peace it was seeking._

_Port News - 28/08_

Port News was one of those tabloids that didn’t have a shred of credibility to them, instead trying to shock people with flashy headlines. Shinjiro despised it but, just this time, Port News and its blatant disregard for protecting people’s identities came in handy. Some tabloid-trash actually helping with an investigation, huh? He’d never thought he’d live to see the day.

Either way, he had about an hour before he was needed at Jin’s place, so he looked up the address Hamuko had sent him next. He could be there in fifteen minutes if he took his car, but Shinjiro decided he’d rather walk. After spending all this time cooped up at home, he desperately needed some fresh air, to get his thoughts in order. Besides, finding a good parking spot at this time of the evening was a pain. So, he quickly put on his coats, grabbed the keys and made his way outside. 

January was being relentless this year, the temperatures probably below the freezing point, but, at the moment, he couldn’t have cared less. Even though he usually wasn't a fan of winter, scratch that, he despised it, the cold air felt good tonight, helping him focus and his hands weren’t going to freeze off either, tucked inside his pockets as they were. 

He arrived with fifteen minutes to spare, but that wasn’t a big deal. All the more time to get into the right mindset for the job. As he watched the few cars that came through here pass by, a feeling of tense anticipation settled in his stomach. Maybe they’d finally get somewhere with their investigation tonight. A few minutes later, he saw Hamuko rounding the corner, Junpei close behind. When she saw him, she greeted him with a wave of her hand.

"Hey! Hope we didn’t make you wait too long,“ she asked with a smile on her lips, while Junpei gave him a nod of acknowledgment. 

"Nah, not at all." 

"Well then, should we go? His apartment is on the second floor." She didn’t need to ask twice. 

The building was one of those that didn’t have a common entranceway, but a flight of stairs running along the outside of the building, leading to the different floors and apartments. The three of them climbed the stairs, metal ones that would be extremely slippery after rain or snow. He had the feeling there'd been more than one slipping related accident in the past. The apartment they were looking for was at the very end of the catwalk. There was no doorbell, so Hamuko gave a small nod to both of them and raised her arm to knock. At the last moment though, Shinjiro laid his hand on her forearm, stopping her.

"Wait." She looked at him, slightly confused and he let go of her arm. "If there’s a chance he knows Takaya, then there’s a chance he’s dangerous as well." She nodded, a determined glint in her eyes.

"I’ll be careful." 

For a second he considered suggesting that he knock instead, just in case, but ultimately decided against it. Sure, there might be a danger but person-to-person communication had never been his strong suit. They’d be better off if Hamuko tried first. The sound of her fist hitting the door rang out and he could hear movement from inside the apartment. A few moments later, the door was opened by a wiry dude with black hair and a pair of glasses sitting on his nose. He had a weary look about him, the bags under his eyes so dark Shinjiro would’ve trouble matching them, even on his worst days. So this was Jin. 

"Who are you?" The tone of his voice lay somewhere between hostile and suspicious. Dealing with this guy would be a pain, he could feel it. 

"Good to meet you! I’m Hamuko Arisato and these are my partners Junpei and Shinjiro." In stark contrast to Jin, her voice sounded chipper and inviting. If she was feeling as annoyed as Shinjiro, she was doing a world-class job of hiding it.

"Look, I’m not buying anything, so-" 

"We came to ask some questions about Takaya," she cut in. At the mention of that name he visibly stiffened. "You know him, right?"

"Takaya and I are done. There’s nothing to talk about." He was trying to play tough, but his voice betrayed a sliver of fear. The others might not have picked up on this, but Shinjiro knew exactly what to look for. Interesting.

"We really just want to ask some questions, I promise!"

"Piss off." He was about to shut the door in their faces, but Shinjiro managed to wedge his foot in the gap in time.

"You little-" he began but Hamuko didn't let him finish. 

"We know Chidori’s death wasn’t a suicide. Takaya did something to her in that warehouse on the docks." That gave him pause.

"Oh really, and why would that be?"

"You can’t bind the spirit of a person who’s already dead. It only works the moment their soul leaves their body and I really don’t think he just happened to be there when she died." Jin’s eyes, quite understandably so, widened at her answer.

Not only had she just dropped all of that spirit-binding stuff on him, which he might not even have a clue about, she also just pretty much insinuated that Takaya killed Chidori. Which was a very real possibility, but it wasn’t like they had any hard evidence. Shinjiro saw only two ways this might go. One, Jin didn’t know any of what Hamuko was talking about and would dismiss them as complete lunatics. Two, he knew exactly what she was talking about, and would refuse to talk about it. Either way, things weren’t looking good. 

Turned out that he was absolutely incapable of reading the room because Jin surprised him with an answer he hadn’t even considered. 

"Alright. Come in." Jin didn’t dare look at either of them, but, nevertheless, he took a step back and opened the door, beckoning them to enter. 

Well, damn. Hamuko's gamble had paid off.

The small apartment was, well, a sight, to put things mildly. All of the windows were blocked off with cardboard, taped to the wall in an almost messy way. It was very bare, only filled with the basic necessities and a few full bags of trash lay deposited in a corner, as if Jin hadn’t left this place in a while. Hell, even Shinjiro’s place looked more inviting than this and he wasn’t exactly the master of home decoration. He let them to a table and gestured for them to sit down on the folding-chairs that were part of the ensemble and settled on the opposite side from them. Then, looking expectantly in a way that seemed to say 'don’t waste my time' he nodded at Hamuko.

"We recently ran into some… trouble with Takaya." Jin simply raised an eyebrow, looking more condescending than interested. “So now we’re trying to find him."

"Find him? If you know what’s good for you, stay out of his way.“ Shinjiro barely suppressed a sigh. They needed information, not a warning.

"Not possible. He has it out for us." 

That finally seemed to catch Jin’s attention. He blinked at her and there was a second of heavy silence before he continued.

"What did you do?" His voice was low and had a dark, almost threatening undertone to it, one that Shinjiro didn’t like in the slightest. Hamuko, on the other hand, didn’t seem to be intimidated by it at all. 

"Long story short, we set Chidori’s spirit free from the warehouse," she replied in an almost business-like tone, not intimidated in the slightest. Her answer didn’t sit well with Jin. 

At all. 

He sprung up from where he was sitting, knocking over the chair in the progress. At the same time, he slammed both of his fists on the table so hard, the noise resounded through the entire room. It was half a miracle neither of the group flinched, though Shinjiro immediately tensed up, his hands balling into fists instinctively. 

"You did _what?!_ A fucking idiot, that’s what you are!" 

"Hey!" Junpei piped up, clearly not happy with how Jin was treating his friend. It took Shinjiro a considerable amount of self-restraint not to join in. 

"I’m talking to her, not you," he dismissed Junpei, a cold edge to his voice. He didn’t look as if he was going to back down, but Hamuko was more than up to the challenge.

"What’s done is done, no need to get all up in my face about it." She was oddly calm, looking up at Jin from her seat, as though she wasn’t fazed at all. "Either way, he’s after us now because of it."

Everyone was taken aback by that answer, most of all Jin. He blinked at her as if he didn’t quite understand her reaction, the anger slowly bleeding out of his features. Then, without another word, he picked up the chair and sat down again. Only then, did he speak.

"Figures." 

"That’s why we came here, we need your help. Anything you can tell us about Takaya. And you clearly know what happened to Chidori so any info on that would be-"

"Absolutely not." It sounded final. 

"Why?!"

"I’m already on Takaya’s shit-list, but if he finds you I helped you he’ll come for me too." That explained it. The way the flat looked, more like a hideout than a living space, and how he'd reacted to Takaya's name. The guy was probably scared out of his mind. Maybe, if Takaya was that bad, refusing to help was the smart choice. Still made him a coward though.

"But we won’t tell him a thing about you!"

"You won’t have to. He’ll know." It made sense, as much as Shinjiro didn’t want to admit it. If they showed up at Takaya’s armed with information only Jin could possibly have known, that wouldn’t reflect well on him. "Now, get out of my apartment. And don’t contact me again."

"Alright, I understand." She still sounded slightly too calm, considering the situation. "Why put your life on the line for a bunch of people you don’t even know?" The resignation in her voice took Shinjiro by complete surprise. What was she on about?! She’d been so tenacious up until now, he almost couldn’t believe her throwing in the towel like that. 

"Exactly, so-" 

"But what about Chidori?! She was your friend, right?" Oh, so that’s what she’d been going for. Smart. 

"Was. She’s gone now." His tone was ice-cold, not a note of affection in it. 

"So you just stop giving a shit?" Despite the swear, there was no anger in her voice as she asked the question. A perfect not-mad-just-disappointed guilt-trip. "I don’t know if you stuck around after her death long enough to notice, but she was going through hell while her spirit was bound to that warehouse. So, yeah, you don’t owe us jack-shit, but you sure owe her."

Her voice was not only filled with a stalwart determination, but with something else. Something he needed a second to decipher. Chidori’s pain. Hamuko was the only one who knew, first-hand, how Chidori had felt, how she’d suffered. It hurt him, in a way he hadn’t seen coming. And the way the other two were stunned into silence told him they felt the same.

Jin released a big sigh, covering his face in his hands for a moment. Then, with a weary look in his eyes, he spoke. 

"He’s in Kyoto. Last I knew, at least." Finally, some information. Jin had bin a tough nut to crack, but Hamuko had done it. 

„And about Chidori?“ 

"Yes, he’s the one who killed her and bound her soul." The way he said it made it sound as if running around murdering people was just business as usual for Takaya. The thought made Shinjiro feel sick with anger. "I don’t know why, only that, apparently, it failed. He must’ve tried it for some sort of personal gain though, that much I’m sure of."

"Thank you, seriously," she said, inclining her head towards him.

"Great, now get out." She nodded and got up from her seat. Together, the three of them made their way back towards the entrance.

"One last thing." She was already on the doorstep when she turned around towards Jin one last time. "You said setting Chidori free was a mistake but I don’t believe that, not for a single second. She was suffering and we ended that. No matter what happens with Takaya, I’ll never regret that."

With that, she turned again and left the apartment, Junpei and Shinjiro following in her wake. Nobody dared to speak, but the look on Jin’s face already said enough. She’d gotten him good. Probably more so than one of Shinjiro’s punches ever could’ve. 

It was both, incredibly badass and slightly disconcerting. 

Up until today, he’d perceived her as more of a warm person. Even when she’d yelled at him at the store, her outburst had been one of white-hot fury. How she’d talked to Jin though… that’d been more on the Mitsuru end of the frosty scale. He didn’t quite know how to react to that, so he was pleasantly surprised when it turned out all of it had been an act a moment later. Not a second after the door fell closed behind them, the anger finally bubbled out from beneath the cracks.

"What. A. **Cunt.** " 

She pronounced each word as a sentence and that last one was dripping with so much hot fury and frustration, it almost gave him whiplash. Still, it wasn’t like he didn’t share the sentiment. 

"Yeah, right!?" Junpei followed up instantly. "If I ever run across him again, I’m giving him a piece of my mind." Both of his hands were balled into fists and Shinjiro could instantly tell that he meant it.

"No kidding," Hamuko replied in an exasperated tone, the anger not quite gone, but simmering beneath the surface now while shaking her head ever so slightly. He could tell the situation had worn her out.

"You okay?" he asked her, barely managing to keep the concern out of his voice.

"Yeah, I am." Her voice sounded more like 'I really want to punch something', but that was understandable given the circumstances. Damn, Shinjiro was pretty close to his limit as well. Junpei wasn’t the only one who was going to introduce Jin to his fists next time they met. 

"Honestly, I’m impressed with how calm you were in there." If this had been up to him, things would’ve gone quite differently.

"Really?" He nodded. „Thank God. Usually, Minato is the one who keeps his composure. I’m terrible at it!“ 

"Dude, you totally outplayed him. Like, seriously." She smiled at that.

"So, Kyoto, huh…" Shinjiro wasn’t meaning to bring down the mood, but they did need to discuss what they’d just found out. 

"Mm-hm. I honestly didn’t think we’d have to leave town for this." Understandably, she didn’t exactly sound overjoyed. After all, they weren’t teenagers who could just cut class and skip town. There’d be issues with work, at least for some of them. 

"What a mess…" Judging by that, Junpei wasn’t a fan of the situation either.

"Let’s deal with it tomorrow, alright? We all need a break, at least for a few hours. We can get the war-council together in the morning." 

She sounded awfully hopeful all of a sudden, but it took him a moment to realize that she wasn’t doing it to pick herself up, she was doing it for them. Sure, she looked exhausted, but if he had to guess he’d say she could probably power on through for a few more hours. What she was really playing at here, was making sure that everyone else was going to be okay. Both, Junpei and himself, readily agreed with the proposal. 

"It’s gotten pretty late, want me to walk you home Ham?"

"Junpei, you live on the other side of town." 

"I don’t though." He did. But, for some reason, he didn’t want her to walk alone right now. Probably because of the supermarket debacle. At least it was the only logical explanation he could come up with. 

"Thanks guys, but I don’t need an escort." 

"I know you don’t, but I’m going in the same direction anyway." She sighed and rolled her eyes, but nodded eventually. 

"Alright. But you’re not making any detours just to take me all the way." 

"Deal."

The two of them bid their goodbyes to Junpei and walked off. Thankfully, Shinjiro remembered where Hamuko’s house was, having been there before. For a while, neither of them talked, too busy processing the new information they’d pried out of Jin’s hands. There was something else though. Something he needed to ask her about.

"Hamuko?"

"Yes?"

"Why’d you ask me to come along tonight?" The question had been on his mind ever since she’d called him. After all, he should’ve been pretty low on the list, considering what she'd been about to do. "Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I was there, but you barely know me. Why not ask one of your friends or your brother?" 

She pondered the question in silence for a good few seconds, before giving him an answer.

"Well, I had a feeling this might not go over smoothly, and… It’s just that after what happened at the store I felt like I could really depend on you." Her voice had an honesty to it that stunned him into silence. "Not like the others aren’t dependable, they're great! I just meant that-" She abruptly cut off, looking away in embarrassment. It might've been the cold air, and he couldn't see too well in the dark but he could've sworn her cheeks were slightly redder than before. 

He'd have been lying if he said he wasn't a little flustered as well though. Dependable wasn't a word that people used to describe him, at least not usually. He'd also have been lying if he said that it didn't feel nice. 

"Hey, don’t stress out about it." She still looked a bit embarrassed, so he said the first thing that came to mind, making sure to throw in a good bit of sarcasm. "Seriously, way to make a guy feel bad for putting you on the spot like that." 

Surprisingly enough, it worked.

"You’re an ass." Despite the harsh words and the half-hearted punch to his arm, there was a genuine smile on her lips. "Seriously though, I feel like I haven’t thanked you enough for what you did back at the store. I don’t even want to think about what would’ve happened if you hadn’t been there…" Neither did he.

"Hamuko, you don’t need to thank me. It’s what anyone would’ve done, so I don’t expect a medal or anything."

"Not one for basking in the glory, huh?" Shinjiro wouldn't know. There usually wasn't any glory around for him to bask in. "I think you’re wrong though, not everyone would’ve helped. You’re a better person than you think you are, I can tell."

"So _I’m_ considered a good guy these days? What has the world come to?" he replied, a sarcastic, but somber undertone in his voice. 

"Ugh, not this again. You’re good at playing pretend but you’re not a bad guy."

"Really now?" he answered, his voice low but with an edge to it and looking at her with what Akihiko called the 'Shinjiro Aragaki Death Glare'. 

He didn’t really want to intimidate her though, he was merely trying to prove a point. She saw right through it though.

"Yup." She emphasized the p at the end of the word, not at all affected by his display. "If I’m being honest it’s kind of cute," she continued teasing, a wide grin on her face.

Cute, huh? That one was new. Hearing her say it, even as a joke, brought the tiniest of smiles to his lips. Though he was sure that if it’d been anyone else he’d-

Oh no. Nonononono. _No._

The reason he liked listening to her, even when she was teasing him, the reason he felt so drawn to her and had constantly been thinking about her well-being the past few days was stupidly simple. He had a crush on Hamuko Arisato.

The realization hit him like a punch to the mouth, for two different reasons. One, he hadn’t had a crush in literal years. So the sudden rush of feelings, a grotesque mixture between absolute bliss and headless panic, was sort of overwhelming. Two, counting today, Hamuko and him had met _four_ times, for Christ's sake! If he’d managed to develop feelings for someone in that short a time, it meant he had it bad. 

Shit. 

"Earth to Shinjiro? You in there?" 

Hamuko’s voice snapped him out of the haze he’d been caught in. Kind of ironic, all things considered. 

"Yeah, I just… spaced out there for a second. Long day, y’know?" It wasn’t a lie, not really. He was exhausted.

"Oh, I do, trust me. Seems like we’re not going to catch a break anytime soon though."

"Ain’t no rest for the wicked, or something like that."

"Then let's at least get in a few solid hours sleep tonight. God knows I need it."

"Amen." 

They walked in silence afterward. It wasn’t awkward though, not in the slightest. Actually, Shinjiro felt… comfortable walking side by side with her, even though he had to make a conscious effort not to sneak a glance at her every so often. When they arrived in front of her building he felt a sense of relief. He really needed some alone-time, to think all of this over. Both, the insane situation he’d found himself in and, well, Hamuko. Who, by now, could've been considered a situation in her own right.

"Well, here we are," he said, gesturing at the building. 

"Shinjiro!"

"What?" he asked, as if he didn’t know exactly what she was talking about.

"I told you not to make any detours for my sake!" She’d put both her hands on her hips pretending to be angry, but he just didn’t buy it. 

"What are you gonna do about it. Fight me?", he replied in a much more playful tone than what was usual for him. 

"Oh, if you keep talking like that I will!" 

"I’d like to see you try."

"I’m warning you though, I don’t intend to fight fair."

With that, she stepped into his space with one long stride, a wicked grin on her face. He wasn’t going to back down though, no chance. But then their eyes caught and all of a sudden, his brain decided to short-circuit. She was looking at him with an intensity that had completely caught him off-guard. It was as if he was trapped, unable to move. Not that he wanted to. Part of him would’ve been satisfied to let this moment last forever. 

It didn’t though.

The silence was shattered by Hamuko suddenly poking him in the side, making him flinch. She backed away, one hand in front of her mouth trying, unsuccessfully, to stifle the laughter escaping her. He’d gotten got. Before he had the chance to react though, Hamuko was already talking again.

"Anyway! I’m going to head to bed now. You should too."

"Yeah… Good night Hamuko."

"Night!"

With that she turned around, unlocked the door, and disappeared behind it a second later, leaving Shinjiro standing alone on the sidewalk, unable to process anything that had happened in the last twenty minutes. 

—

The first thing he noticed stepping into the twin’s apartment the next morning, was the atmosphere. It was considerably lighter than the last time he’d been there. Sure everyone was talking over each other, frantically planning their next steps, but the fact that they finally had something to work with seemed to have lifted an invisible weight off of all their shoulders. Before waving him over to join the group, Hamuko caught his eyes in a gaze that absolutely didn’t make his heart skip a beat because, despite all the evidence, he wasn’t crushing on her _that_ hard. It simply wasn’t something he did.

Not that he had any time to ponder it, for which he was honestly a little thankful. He was instantly swept up in the discussion, mostly revolving around one topic. Kyoto, and how they’d get there.

"Thing is, we're not exactly liquid enough to buy tickets for the speed train right now,“ Hamuko said. The sentence was accompanied by a deep sigh. No surprises there, prices for those tickets were so ridiculously high it was more of a robbery than business.

But Shinjiro had just the thing to remedy that.

"It's fine, we can take my car,“ he offered. 

"Your car sucks man", his best friend piped up before any of the others had the time to answer. _Bastard._

"Well then, feel free to walk to Kyoto." Yes, his car was a steaming pile of trash but it did work. Akihiko threw him a look but otherwise stayed silent. Thank god, Shinjiro really wasn't in the mood for a lecture right now. 

"You'd really let us tag along?" Hamuko asked, looking significantly more thrilled about the prospect than Akihiko. 

"Sure. My car can be a bit… difficult, but it'll get us to Kyoto." 

"If it doesn't break down first", Akihiko muttered under his breath. If anyone else had heard, they made a point to ignore it. Thank god.

"That'd be great! If we split the gas money getting to Kyoto shouldn't be an issue at all." 

"Except not all of us will fit," Yukari threw in. 

"Well, some of us need to keep tabs on things here anyway. Just because Jin said Takaya went to Kyoto that doesn’t mean he’s still there. He might even have come back because of us." That one, he could agree with. They couldn't afford to put all of their resources towards a single thing.

"Let's do teams of three and four then." Everyone nodded at Mitsuru’s suggestion.

"Alright, so who stays and who goes to Kyoto?" 

"Well, I'm the one Takaya attacked, so I have to go," Hamuko said less than a second later. True, having her go to Kyoto made sense, but not only because of the incident at the store. Last night, he’d experienced first-hand how capable she was. Whether Takaya was there or not, her skills would definitely come in handy digging around for information there.

"And if we're gonna use my car I want to be driving," Shinjiro followed up. While it was true that he’d rather drive, he also wasn’t one of these guys who wouldn’t let anyone else drive his car, far from it. 

The reason he’d answered so quickly was, for the most part, because he wanted to keep an eye on Hamuko. Not only because, so far, Takaya had targeted her specifically, which was bad enough with her being just a bit too reckless, but because the stupid little part of his brain that controlled his emotions wanted to be near her. _So much for not dragging your feelings into this. World-class, Shinji._

"Okay, that's two people down, who else?" 

"Me." Minato didn’t hesitate as he spoke, but it didn't come out hurried either. As if any other answer wasn’t sensical anyway. Hey, maybe, he had a point. They were twins after all and twins went places together, right? Said twin, on the other hand, didn’t look convinced. 

"Minato..." she tried, but didn't get to finish her thought. 

"I'm not going to let you do this alone. Not after all that happened“ He sounded serious but, as expected, Hamuko wasn’t about to just give in either.

"We need you to make sure things don't get out of control over here. What if he comes back? What if he’s already here?“ 

"Yukari and Junpei can manage." 

"No, they can’t!"

"No, we can’t!"

Hamuko, Yukari, and Junpei all answered at the same time. So much for that. 

"See? They need you here." Minato didn’t seem all that placated by the fact that she was right, so she quickly doubled down on it. "Besides, I’m not going to be alone. Shinjiro and whoever else tags along will be there too. We’ll take care of each other, I promise." 

Minato looked like he was about to say something else, but Mitsuru shut that one down before he had a chance to get it out there.

"Akihiko, you should go to Kyoto," she suggested before a fight could break out over it. 

"Me?" 

"Yes. Shinjiro and you both work best when you’re in a team together. I will be helping the others here." It was true. Akihiko wasn’t only his partner concerning anything paranormal, he was also his best friend. Up until this day, Shinjiro hadn’t met anyone he worked better with. Same thing went for Akihiko.

"Yeah, you’re right. I’ll go."He looked at Minato when he said it, as if he was trying to give him a chance to object. 

"Alright, so are we good?" Hamuko asked expectantly, earning a nod from everyone in the room, except for her brother. 

"Yes," he finally said after a tense moment of silence. 

The twins looked at each other again then, the same way they had before the channeling. Having a conversation in their minds, or something like that. He could see the affectionate look in Hamuko’s eyes and the way Minato’s expression softened at it before tentatively smiling at her. Only then, did she speak up again.

"Good, then let’s do this!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well, there goes shinji…
> 
> fun fact, the scene where they talk about the train tickets and aki and shinji 'argue' about the car is the first interaction I wrote for this fic, all the way back in spring. 
> 
> thanks for sticking around and see you on the next one!


	4. Roadtrips And Bloodthirsty Hell-Demons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I've been gone for a while (life came at me and then finals did the rest) but I _finally_ found the time to finish up this chapter! I'm not all that jazzed about how it came out, but he plot picks up quite a bit, so I hope you can enjoy it anyway.
> 
> Thank you so so much for sticking around and, especially, for any comment, they always make my entire week <3

"Alright, push!" Shinjiro yelled, turning the key in the ignition for what must’ve been hundredth time that morning. Nothing. 

"We are," Akihiko’s voice came from behind him, not even trying to hide how annoyed he was. Not that Shinjiro could fault him for that. 

It was early and cold and pushing Shinjiro’s giant trash-heap down the road was about the least fun thing he could come up with right now. They’d been trying and failing, the whole 'you push, I start the car' thing for the better part of ten minutes now and it was slowly but surely getting on everyone’s nerves, not just Akihiko’s. Damn battery. 

"Then push harder." 

"If our performance isn’t up to your standards," Akihiko hissed, "Feel free to come out and switch."

"Oh shut-" Just at that moment, when he turned the key again, the motor finally came to life and the car started, slowly moving without the help of the others. Finally. "It’s working, get in!"

Through the rear-view mirror, he could see them off and scramble for the doors, falling into their seats a few seconds later, Akihiko riding shotgun, Hamuko in back. Both of them were breathing somewhat heavily from all the pushing but, hey, it’d paid off. 

"So much for it’ll get us to Kyoto." Akihito crossed his arms in front of him, giving him a look that very distinctively said something between 'fuck off' and 'fuck _you'._

"It’s working now, isn’t it? So get over it." 

Akihiko shook his head but kept quiet and Shinjiro knew he wasn’t as ticked off about the situation as he pretended to be, Akihiko just liked to rag on him. His best friend was a lot of things, fussy wasn’t one of them. Neither was Hamuko, for that matter, because when she spoke up, still catching her breath, she sounded amused, rather than annoyed.

"You sure weren’t lying when you said your car was difficult." There was a hint of mirth hidden in her voice and, even though he was keeping his eyes on the road, he could’ve sworn she was grinning. "Still, thanks again, for taking me along."

"Don’t mention it." He could’ve left it at that. Would’ve, if he knew what was good for him. But there was one question he’d been asking himself ever since their meeting earlier this morning. Usually, that still wouldn’t have been enough for him to pry, but this was Hamuko. He felt like he needed to know. "I gotta ask though, why were you so against Minato coming with us?"

"Because the others need him here." 

Sure, thinking about the group meeting they’d just had the answer made sense, but he called bullshit the second he heard it. Still, he didn’t want to pry, not overtly at least, so all he did was throw her a look through the rearview mirror. Their eyes met for only a fraction of a second before he focused on the road again, but it was enough to get her talking. 

She sighed softly, before adding, "I just don’t want to put him in danger like that. The worrying isn’t one-sided, you know?" 

That still didn’t explain why she wanted him to stay in town though. After all, Takaya might’ve come back to Iwatodai after the incident in the warehouse, or he could’ve moved on from Kyoto, to a totally different place. For now, both places were equally dangerous. Except if Hamuko already knew he was in Kyoto. Thinking about it, not only did they leave Minato behind, but none of her friends were coming along either. She was trying to protect them. Just like last night, when she’d taken the brunt of Jin’s aggression. Of course, this was nothing but speculation, at least until he asked. 

"So you’re sure Takaya is in Kyoto."

She remained silent for a moment too long. Bingo. Hamuko Arisato might’ve been good at a lot of things, but playing coy definitely wasn’t one of them. 

"No, I have a _feeling_ he’s in Kyoto. Totally different things." Except she was psychic, or whatever she wanted to call it. 

"Maybe. If you were anyone else," he doubled down. Not his brightest idea ever, apparently.

"Can we not talk about this?" In an instant, her voice had taken on the same hurt tone that it had at the supermarket a few days ago when she'd blown up on him. He could've hit himself for being an insensitive idiot again and decided to let it rest, but, as always, Akihiko completely failed to read the damn room.

"Why not? I’ve never met anyone who could do what you can. It’s fascinating!"

"Maybe when you’re a part-time ghost hunter, but put that aside and all it ever does for you is make you the weird kid." There was a tense moment of silence in the car. "Sorry. I know it’s important for this, it’s just… kind of a sore spot. Besides, if it wasn’t for my 'powers' none of us would be in this mess right now."

"That’s bullshit," Shinjiro shot back immediately. So her condition had been making her life harder than it needed to be and that sucked, truly, but there was no way in hell was he was going to let her play the blame game.

"I’m serious! If I hadn’t helped set Chidori free-"

"Then she’d still be suffering. Didn’t you tell Jin last night that you didn’t regret it?" She sighed. 

"Yeah, but… I was only thinking about myself then. I mean, aren’t you guys ticked off that you have to help clean up my mess now?"

_"No,"_ both Akihito and him answered at exactly the same time, neither of their tones suggesting any room for argument. 

"Alright, enough of this." She said after a tense moment of silence. "We’ll have enough time to be all sulky and serious when we get to work, so ket’s kick back for a little while. Shinjiro, can you turn on the radio?"

"Good luck with that. I’ve been trying to get him to put on some music in the car for ages and it’s never worked."

"Wait, so you just drive in silence?!" she sounded outraged at the mere idea of it. He had a looming feeling that this was going to be the start of a very annoying discussion.

"Yup," Akihiko answered for him. "Shinji's a huge killjoy, in case you hadn't noticed." 

"Goddamnit Aki! Which side are you on here!?"

"About the music thing? Definitely hers." Traitor.

"Ha!" Hamuko sounded enthusiastic. A bit too much for his liking. "Two against one, that means you're overruled!"

"Overruled? Don't think so. My ride, my rules." At that response, she sighed theatrically.

"Well, what about that Akihiko, you were right. He _is_ a killjoy." 

"Told you so." Shinjiro had to work very hard to suppress a sigh. 

"You two are the worst, you know that?" Hamuko didn’t seem too bothered by that assessment though, quite the opposite. She simply clicked her tongue, and when she spoke up again her voice had a too-sweet tone to it that went straight through his heart. 

"I’ll be better if you turn on the radio." And just like that, he couldn’t think of a good reason to refuse her. Goddamnit.

"Alright, I’ll do it. So quit nagging" Defeated, he switched on the radio and left it on the first station it tuned to.

Surprisingly enough, the music didn’t end up bothering him as much as he’d thought it would. In fact, some of the songs were pretty catchy, even though they were the definition of pop-trash. Not that he’d ever admit to that. They’d have to pry that piece of information out of his cold, dead hands. Hamuko even hummed along to some of the songs. It was…kind of nice. 

Even if she was off-key sometimes. 

—

They stopped for some food and gas about five hours later, after Hamuko’s stomach made a sound like a dying animal that was impossible to overhear despite the music. She assured them she was fine and that they should focus on getting to Kyoto as quickly as possible, but neither Akihiko nor himself were having any of it. Besides, there’d been an accident some ten-ish kilometers ahead of them and if they kept going they’d just get stuck in a jam. Better to wait it out at a gas station.

They split up, Akihito getting in line for the single bathroom the place had, Hamuko vanishing into the small store and emerging a few minutes later with something to eat, and Shinjiro refilling the tank and having a smoke.

He’d just finished up his cigarette and got up from where he was sitting on the curb to go and throw it away into the nearest trashcan. Then, he made his way over to the car, where Hamuko waiting, half sitting, half leaning on the hood, and enthusiastically chowing down on a sandwich. He stopped next to her, giving her a single nod. For a while, she ate in silence, while he was pretending not to look at her. 

He failed miserably. A few short minutes into his endeavor their eyes met, and he was effectively trapped, caught by her gaze. It would’ve been absolutely mortifying if it weren’t for the smile she shot him. All of a sudden, his stomach was doing flips inside him and he felt like some helpless teenager going through his first crush. If she had any idea what she was doing to him she’d probably laugh herself half to death.

"Hey, Shinjiro?" she asked between bites. Her voice sounded so light casual that the question that actually came after completely floored him. "Last night… you said you lived close to my place. Why’d you lie?" Shit.

He hadn’t thought about last night at all when he told her to come over to his place after she was done preparing for the trip. Retrospectively he really should’ve gotten the car started with Akihito first and then picked her up from home. 

"I- uh…" 

And that was the best he could do. Even if he’d expected that question, and he sure didn’t, he wouldn’t have had a clue on how to answer. There weren’t any plausible lies, none that he could come up with at least, and the truth was out of the question. _I didn’t realize it at the time but I just wanted to spend more time with you because I’m pretty sure I have a really bad crush on you_ seemed like a pretty surefire way to creep her out.

He hadn’t known her for long, but one thing Shinjiro knew without a doubt was that she was nothing if not persistent. Which was why it almost made him do a double-take when she let him off the hook after nothing more than a few seconds of silence. 

"Actually, never mind." 

He didn’t know whether she’d let it go because she’d picked up on him being uncomfortable or because she simply didn't care that much, but nevertheless, he was grateful for it. Because, boy, did he not want to talk about it. That would’ve been one awkward conversation and they didn’t need any animosity between them. Not when they were planning to go up against what might be history’s biggest creep. Still, the silence that followed was anything but comfortable and he felt the need to say literally anything just to have it end. 

"I can’t believe you like that stuff," he said, pointing at the sandwich she was shoving down her throat. Not the smoothest move, but it’d do.

It was classic gas station grub. Cut into two triangular halves and filled with an unidentifiable spread and thin, square-shaped slices of cheese. The ones that came in individual plastic-wrapped packets and were probably radioactive, or at least caustic. 

"C’mon, it’s great!"

"It’s vile." 

"And since when are you an authority on food?" There was a challenge in her voice and Shinjiro had never been one to back away from one of those. For better or worse.

"Hey! I’ll have you know I’m an _excellent_ cook," he shot back.

"Wait, really?" 

"Yeah, why?" It was true, he knew a thing or two about cooking, but he didn’t usually go around telling people about it. They usually had problems reconciling 'asshole with a temper' with someone who spent his time in the kitchen just for the fun of it. 

Maybe he should’ve predicted it at this point, but Hamuko reacted quite differently.

"That’s so cool! My brother and can only do very basic things, and even then… well, let’s just say we mostly get ready-made stuff from the supermarket." 

"Big surprise you’re broke then. That ready-made crap is way overpriced."

"Well, what am I supposed to do about it?! Unless… Maybe the great chef himself would deign to show me the ropes?" Shinjiro raised an eyebrow. Was she really asking him what he thought she was?

"You want me to teach you how to cook?" 

"Yeah, why not," she answered, shrugging casually. "Only if you want to, I mean." He didn’t even have to think about it. Any excuse to spend time with her, Takaya-hunting aside, was a good one. Even if she was miles out of his league. 

"You know what? If we actually make it through all of this, I will."

"Seriously?!" She was excited, and not bothering to hide it either. It brought a smile to this lips. 

"Seriously. Now finish up and get your ass back in the car," he said just as Akihito came walking towards them. "And when you end up with food poisoning, don’t say I didn’t warn ya."

"Oh, come on! It really isn’t that bad," she quipped while getting into the backseat. "Besides, if I wanted food poisoning I’d have gone for tuna, not cheese."

—

Almost three hours later they finally pulled off the highway and into Kyoto and screw them if they didn’t get stuck in traffic immediately. Only then did they realize that, just maybe, they didn’t plan this trip as well as they could’ve. In this case, 'maybe' meant 'absolutely, a hundred percent'. So, they used their time stuck in the car for a much-needed strategy session. Between the restlessness that came with driving all day and the nerve-wracking conversation Hamuko and him had at the gas station, it wasn’t much of a surprise he couldn’t come up with anything useful.

At he wasn’t the only one who didn’t have a clue on what to do next. 

With preparations, travel time, and Kyoto traffic it had gotten quite late. The winter sun had already gone down and the clock on the dashboard told him that it was already past half-past eight in the evening. They decided that it’d be best to look for a cheap hotel to stay the night before it got too late and then take it from there. If it were just him, or even him and Aki, sleeping in the car would’ve been alright, but three people were one too many for that endeavor. Besides, they needed a base of operations where they could work properly.

So, Hamuko looked up the next-best hotel on her phone and they slowly made their way there through the evening traffic. As expected, it wasn’t anything special, but, there weren’t any water stains on the wall or roaches crawling around, not as far as he could tell, so it suited him just fine. The young woman working at the reception was loudly chewing on a piece of gum when she handed them the key to their single room, looking like she’d rather work any other job than this one, but he didn’t mind that either. 

There hadn’t been any 3-bed-rooms, so they’d taken the next cheapest one, with two bunk-beds, instead. They were standing on the right and left sides, right next to the door, leaving about a meter’s width of empty, green-grayish linoleum between them. They didn’t have a bathroom of their own, sharing one with the entire floor instead, but there were a communal kitchen and living space they could use, so the place wasn’t a total bust. All in all, better than some of the flats he’d lived in. The pay from working at a convenience store didn’t exactly make for a grand budget.

They were just throwing their stuff onto their respective bunks when Akihito popped a question Shinjiro hadn’t expected. "Hamuko, is it really okay for you to room with us?" he asked once they got their stuff sorted. "We haven’t known each other that long, so if you want to get another one…" 

That one gave Shinjiro pause. Hamuko hadn’t made any indication of it, so he never considered she might not be cool with their sleeping arrangements. He didn’t get to think on it though, because Hamuko reacted a second later, more or less in the way he’d expected her to.

"What, scared I’ll give you cooties Sanada?" she shot back, a playful grin on her face. "As long as you don’t snore too loud sharing is a-okay." 

"It’s not like we’ll be doing that much sleeping anyway," Shinjiro added. Big mistake, as it turned out.

Hamuko snorted, failing miserably to cover the broad grin on her face with her hand while Akihiko made a noise like he was choking on his own spit and Shinjiro swore he could see a faint redness creep up his friend’s neck. What the _fuck?_

"The hell are you guys acting like tha- Oh." At his sudden realization, Hamuko couldn’t hold back a giggle anymore, while Akihiko buried his face in his hands, now red as a tomato. 

"That’s not what I meant you idiots! How old are you, twelve?!" 

"You’re kind of right though. We’ll probably be working long hours, there’s no time to waste." He was feeling thankful that she was helping de-escalate this mess, but only for a second, because what she said next only made the whole thing worse. "And I know that’s not what you meant. You guys would at least have to buy me a drink first." 

With that she walked out of the room, leaving behind a blushing Akihiko, and Shinjiro, who was starting to get the feeling that her knack for teasing people would someday be the end of him. 

After a short discussion in the common room, they decided that, lacking any leads, they’d just have to look up paranormal occurrences around Kyoto and take it from there. It was far from the most effective way to do this, but they didn’t exactly have another option. They quickly texted the others, telling them that they’d arrived and asked for some help with the research, if they could spare the time, then left for the first 'haunted' site in town they could find on the internet. 

The rest of the night went on in much of the same way. The other team looked up possible locations, Shinjiro’s group checked them out. They could’ve covered more ground if they split up, but neither of them thought separating was a good idea, they weren’t a bunch of teens in your typical horror movie. Also, unlike in a horror movie, where you got thirty minutes of build-up at best before shit hit the fan, they combed the city until early morning without finding a single lead. It was frustrating, and the fact that they were getting tired as time went on didn’t help. 

It wasn’t an unfamiliar feeling, Shinjiro had been stuck on cases before, but this one was still different from anything he’d worked on before. This time, they were suffering from a severe lack of clues, Jin’s testimony and Hamuko’s 'feeling' being the only indications that Takaya was in town at all. And then there was the not so little problem that they were on at least some sort of time-limit because Takaya was after their goddamn lives. Well, he hadn’t actually said that but, considering the guy’s past, 'I’ll make you pay' just seemed like a different way to say 'I’ll kill you'. So, yeah, things were going great.

By the time it was four in the morning they decided to call it quits for the night and before it was five all of them had crashed on their respective beds back at the hotel, too tired to really be frustrated about the lack of results. If either of them did snore, it went unnoticed. All three of them were so worn out from their investigations and travel, it would’ve taken a lot more than that to wake them. 

When Akihiko shook him awake the next day it was a small miracle he woke up at all. A quick glance at his phone told him that it was half-past eight in the morning. That made a bit more than three hours of sleep, and part of him wanted to punch Akihiko for it, but they did need to get on with it. His eyelids felt like they weighed a ton each and when he went to the bathroom to brush his teeth and get ready he noticed that he had some nice, dark circles under his eyes to go with it. Arriving in the common room, he noticed their little group was not yet complete.

"Where’s Hamuko?"

"I tried to wake her, but that girl sleeps like the dead." 

So, he took it upon himself to get her out of bed. Back in their room, the blinds were still down and, sure enough, Hamuko was fast asleep in one of the top bunks. He smiled at how surprised she’d been that they’d let her pick which bunk she wanted last night. Apparently, Minato and her had always fought over the top one. Not wanting to waste any more of their precious time, he approached the bed and climbed up the flimsy ladder to where she was laying. 

"Hamuko." He lightly shook her by the shoulder that was peeking out from beneath the blanket. No response. "Hey, wake up."

This time she released a low groan and turned onto her side, facing away from him and gripping the blanket tighter around her. How about that, Akihiko had been right for a change.

"Don’t wanna." Her voice was heavy with sleep and she sounded determined to ignore him and keep on sleeping. Not an early riser then.

And then something happened that, small as it was, derailed the entire situation in less than a second. The strap of the top she was wearing slipped off her shoulder. Apparently, that was all it took to fry his brain. 

It would’ve been incredibly easy, now that the top was off her shoulder, to imagine what the rest of her would look like without it. Curiously enough, that wasn’t where his mind went. Instead, his focus latched onto the freckles on her bare shoulder. They’d been covered by the long sleeves of her winter clothes before, but even out in the open they were so light you wouldn’t notice them unless you were standing close to her. Did she have the same freckles on her face? Shinjiro tried, and failed to recall, but, right now, it seemed so important. More than finding Takaya. More than anything. 

Thing was, her face was being obscured by her hair, warm, reddish-brown, wavy streaks of it. It would be so easy to push one of them aside, behind her ear. Shinjiro felt like a fucking genius, because this was, without a doubt, the best idea he’d ever had. There wasn’t a single part of him holding him back, why would there be? After all, he’d kill two birds with one stone. To see whether she had freckles on her face, and how her hair felt under his fingers. Slowly but deliberately he reached out and-

Hamuko rolled onto her back, groaning again and shielding her eyes against the light with one hand. Rational thought was flung back into his body at such a speed he almost fell backwards off the ladder. What the _actual fuck_ did he think he was doing?

By the hand of some miracle, Hamuko was still too addled with sleep to realize what was going on. Either that or she deserved an Academy Award for best performance. 

"I hate this," she ground out, sounding about as thrilled about the prospect of getting up as she had a moment ago, but decidedly more awake. That meant he had to get his head out of his ass, and quick. He took a second to banish what’d just happened from his mind and said the next best thing that came popping into his head.

"C’mon, there’s a convenience store across the street. Get ready and we can get breakfast." At that she finally sat up, releasing a big yawn and stretching her arms behind her back. The strap still hung off her shoulder. So much for not thinking about it. "I’ll, uh, wait in the common room."

Apparently, the promise of food was enough to get her up and ready in record time. Not ten minutes later she came out of the bathroom, dressed and eager to go. Akihiko decided he’d stay and get some more research done while they were shopping for breakfast, so Hamuko and him went off without him. They never made it out of the building though. 

"Hey, you!" the woman at the reception called out, waving them over. "You’re room 301, right? Letter for you." 

"From who?" Hamuko asked after the receptionist had dug out a single envelope from under her desk and handed it to her. 

"Dunno, I’m not in the habit of snooping around in people’s mail." That clearly was the end of the conversation for her, but Hamuko wasn’t having it. She fixed the woman with an intense stare, just like she’d done with Jin the other night, until she caved. "It was brought over an hour or so ago by this spindly dude. Long hair, kind of looked like he was gonna keel over any second. Still, there was something off about him. Can’t really describe it, but that guy really gave me the creeps." 

Oh. Fuck.

Shinjiro and Hamuko shared a knowing look. The others would’ve just called or texted and, as far as he knew, neither of them knew anyone in Kyoto. That left only one person, Takaya. Instead of heading for the supermarket, they hurried up the stairs again, to find Akihiko. He must’ve known something was up when the two of them came barreling towards him.

"Shinji?"

"We got mail," he answered in a grave tone. "Takaya."

"This can’t be good." Well, wasn’t his best friend ever so adept at stating the obvious? _Of course_ it wasn’t good. It meant he knew that they were looking for him, and, even worse, he knew where they were staying. That guy had the upper hand and all of them knew it. 

"But we still need to open it," Hamuko said.

There were about a hundred things speaking against that. This could be a death-trap in the form of a letter, maybe a curse or something like that. It could be more threats or some sort of ridiculous demand. But the one thing in favor of actually opening the damn thing was stronger than any counterargument: they didn’t have a single other lead. 

"She’s right," he admitted barely repressing a sigh. Akihiko took a look at both of them, then nodded.

"At least let me draw a circle first. For protection." 

Nobody had any objections on that, so after they’d made sure nobody was around to see them, Akihiko drew a simple protective circle onto the table. In chalk, of course. Last thing they needed was to be charged extra for property damage. After that was done, they all took a seat at the table, Hamuko in the middle and the letter safely inside the circle. At least this way they didn't have to worry about the curse aspect of the situation.

"Alright, here goes nothing," she said and ripped open the envelope, pulling out a single sheet of pristinely white paper and unfolding it so they could see. 

He probably should’ve seen this coming, but the contents of the letter were, essentially, a bunch of gibberish. Some symbols he vaguely knew, but couldn’t identify and a bunch of text, written in what looked like the Greek alphabet. The text was arranged in an almost perfect circle, in the middle of which stood a single word. 

Κάστωρ

A strange feeling overcame him upon reading that word, even though he still didn’t have the foggiest on what the letters actually meant. Like the sun being suddenly blocked out by the clouds, or a door falling shut right behind him. As if on cue, Hamuko broke the silence.

"Okay, that’s creepy, but do any of you have an idea what that means?" 

"No," Akihiko answered. "I’ve never seen anything like this before. It’s Greek, but that’s all I can tell."

"So, what now?" she replied.

He didn’t have a clue. Which was why it came as a complete shock to him when he answered the question.

"You two keep on researching suspicious places. I’ll take a closer look at the thing, maybe I’ll figure something out." 

He hadn’t meant to say that. Those words, they weren’t his. What was even worse was that he reached out to grab the letter a second later, despite not wanting to. His hand was moving on it’s own, no, something else was moving it for him. That’s when he noticed a presence inside of him, pressing up against his own consciousness. The sensation felt so inherently wrong, he felt like he was going to vomit. 

He tried to do something, move or tell the others what was happening or simply scream, but he couldn’t. His own body was completely out of his control. Shit.

The next twenty minutes were pure torture. All he could do was sit there and stare blankly at the sheet of paper inside of the circle. He couldn’t even move his eyes to look in a different direction. The only thing he had left, was his own mind, which told him that he was definitely being possessed right now, but was otherwise useless. How in the world had that even happened? He'd seen a lot of strange things on the job, but 'posession by mail' wasn't one of them. Takaya obviously knew more about this than they did. He wondered whether the thing in his head knew what he was thinking because it certainly didn’t work the other way around. He didn’t have a clue what it might be planning, only that it couldn’t be good, not if the letter had really come from Takaya. 

For a terrible second, he thought that he might be possessed by Takaya himself, but then who’d been the person that delivered the letter? Besides, when he’d popped into Hamuko’s mind she’d reacted very differently from the way he was right now. No, this couldn’t be him.

"Hey!" He was flung back into reality by no other voice than his own. The others immediately turned their attention towards him. "I think I figured out where Takaya is hiding."

"Wait, what?"

"This is written in the Greek alphabet, but when you transcribe it into the Roman one then you can go to Furigana from there. Phonetically, this is Japanese. It’s an address here in Kyoto." 

"Woah. Good thing Mitsuru bullied you to look into this." And that was the problem. His 'discovery' wasn’t suspicious, because Mitsuru _had_ told him to look into the Greek alphabet after it’d come up a few times during their cases. He just hadn’t actually done it. 

"That’s amazing!" She sounded way too excited about this. "So, what do we do now? Go for broke?" No. Absolutely not. Shame that what he said next didn’t reflect his sentiment at all.

"This is the only lead we have. He might be waiting for us already, but the longer we push off visiting that place, the more time we give him to prepare for us." He hated that the argument made sense. What he hated even more was that Akihiko immediately agreed with it.

"You’re right." He sounded determined. Shit. "This might be a trap, but the longer we wait the worse this could get. I have some basic stuff prepared we can take. Against Spirits and Demons and the like. Bastard won’t know what hit him." This was getting worse by the second. 

"Perfect, let’s go." Once again, he couldn’t stop the words from coming out of his mouth. "I’ll drive."

It struck him as odd when the others just nodded, more than ready to go along with this. The whole situation was so suspicious, it basically screamed 'trap'. Why weren’t they questioning this? The answer was painfully simple. Because they trusted him. And he was about to lead them right into what he could only assume to be a trap.

Shinjiro had made his fair share of mistakes, bad shit too, but never in his life had he been more ashamed than he was now.

Even so, he went to the car with the others while fruitlessly trying to wrestle for control of his own body. They drove for a while and he feverishly tried to turn the car around or, for fuck’s sake, tell them about whatever the hell it was that was happening to him. But whenever he thought of opening his mouth, his jaw seemed to be locked in place.

Shinjiro had been through some rough shit before, but that car ride was undoubtedly the worst half-hour of his life. Eventually, they stopped somewhere around the outskirts of the city and he led them towards what looked like an abandoned construction site. At least there didn’t seem to be any workers around and if there had been cranes or other machines they’d already been removed from the site. All that remained was a shell of grey slabs of concrete that vaguely resembled a house, surrounded by metal scaffolding. There was a flimsy fence, made out of a metal mesh surrounding the whole thing, but that wasn’t much of an obstacle. 

Whatever had taken hold of him nodded at the others and got out of the car. With him at the lead, they approached the fence. He climbed it first, followed by Akihiko. Hamuko went last and Shinjiro helped her down on the other side with hands that were and weren’t his own. He hated that whatever was in control of him right now was touching her, however briefly. 

Not only because Shinjiro was afraid that the thing could use him to hurt her, but because it was weirdly… drawn to her. Almost as if it wanted to jump out of his body and right into hers. It must’ve been because of her 'condition’. She’d told him before that rogue spirits used to pop by once in a while when she was younger, without her actively trying to channel them. But if the presence wanted Hamuko so badly, why had it chosen him? And then he realized. There was something, almost like a barrier, keeping it from reaching her.

The talisman.

Akihiko was probably wearing his too, he realized, not that he had as much need of it as she did. That’s why the spirit, or demon, or whatever, had chosen Shinjiro. He’d been the only one without protection when they opened the letter. Part of him was glad that they’d been spared the experience but, then again, that didn’t change anything about the bitch of a situation they were stuck in right now.

"Takaya’s hiding out here?" Hamuko eyed up the building, sounding a bit skeptical and he prayed to whatever might’ve been listening that she’d change her mind about this. The entity possessing had other plans and seemed to know just how to spur her on.

"Only one way to find out," it said in his voice. 

"Alright then, let’s go." Just the words he’d dreaded to hear.

With that, they were off. The second he crossed the threshold into the half-done building, a dark feeling of foreboding started bubbling up in his gut. Takaya might not be here, but wasn’t intending for them to leave this place again, that much was for sure. Inwardly, he cursed himself. Maybe, if Akihiko and Hamuko didn’t both have a reckless streak, maybe if he were stronger, this could’ve been avoided. 

They searched the ground floor first. When that didn’t yield any results, they went for the basement next. Neither of them was particularily keen on that place, so they figured they'd just get it over with. There weren’t any stairs yet, and likely would never be, so they had to climb a ladder down into the dark. Not that the darkness was much of a problem, not for long. You didn’t go investigating without a flashlight, it was the number one rule of the job. After all, spirits and the like just loved messing around with electricity once they got testy and you _really_ didn't want to get stuck with a vengeful dead person because it was too dark to find an exit. 

He got down last and a swipe of his flashlight revealed that the basement was almost as bare and empty as the ground floor had been. There were some steel beams lying around and some spare pipes, probably for the plumbing or heating systems. The others were already a few steps ahead of him, pushing deeper into the room. No Takaya. 

He didn’t get to think on what that meant though, because his hand grabbed the ladder and, very deliberately threw it over. The others flinched and turned around at once at the noise it made as it clattered onto the floor, looking at him with surprise. And then everything seemed to happen all at once.

"Shinji? The hell are you-"Akihiko didn’t get to finish the sentence because Shinjiro walked up to him and punched him straight in the jaw. 

He’d been afraid ever since he realized that his body wasn’t his own, but this, this was terror. Sure, Akihiko and him had seen their fair share of fights, especially back when they were teenagers, but never, absolutely never, had there been an intention to seriously injure each other. It was different now. He could almost feel the murderous intent of the thing inside of him, only growing with every savage punch it made him throw. It was drowning out the voices of the others around him. They were shouting, but he couldn’t make out any words.

He registered Akihiko fighting back, hitting as hard as ever. Even though he wasn’t in control, he could still feel the pain blossoming in the places that got hit by his fists and he was glad for it. Whatever happened to him now, he had it coming. 

_"Stop it!"_ And suddenly Hamuko was between the two of them, trying to stop the fight. For a moment, he almost managed to stop. 

And then that moment ended. He pushed her away, using his full force. The small part of him that was still his own felt a stab of guilt when he heard her crash down onto the floor, but he couldn’t even bring his eyes to turn to check whether she was okay. His sights were set on Akihiko.

He continued attacking, gradually backing him against a wall. Of course, Akihiko wasn’t going down without a fight. He kept hitting back and it hurt like a bitch, but it wasn’t enough to prevent Shinjiro from gaining the upper hand. Soon enough he had his friend cornered, closing both hands around his neck and squeezing down hard. It had been almost too easy. Hamuko didn’t interfere again. All he could do was hope that she was alright. That she’d gotten the ladder back up and escaped because once the thing possessing him was done with Akihiko it’d come for her next and he had the bad feeling that it wouldn’t take much time at all. 

Usually, Akihiko and him would’ve been evenly matched, he’d been in a scuffle with his friend often enough to know that, but whatever had taken hold of Shinjiro was tipping the balance in his favor. From within, he felt a dark surge of strength that hadn’t been there before. It coursed through his veins as his hands tightened around Akihiko’s throat. He was still thrashing, fighting for air, but his protests were slowly but surely growing weaker. And then it hit him, full force. He was about to kill his best friend. 

Oh God.

Not that the realization helped in any way, he still wasn’t in control over his body. The presence was simply too strong. Every time he tried to fight it, to mount an attack, he was ruthlessly beaten back down and flung back into some dark corner in the back of his head. All he could do was scream, in the vacuum of his own mind. 

Until, all of a sudden, a dull pain blossomed in the back of his head. And then… nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)


End file.
